New Bike Day!

[Dirk Hofman]

Wednesday, apparently. Can't wait! Was supposed to get here Jan 5 but now scheduled for Dec 30. Very stoked.

[chuckroast]

Well don't hold out on us...what'cha getting? Gravel grinder, carbon roadie, e-bike?

[birkenweg42]

I retired my Felt in May and bought a Specialized Roubaix. New bike day is at least as good as NGD!
So, what did you get?

[Dirk Hofman]

Another mountain bike, this one with more travel than my current one which has only 120mm. A Santa Cruz Hightower with 145mm and a much slacker geometry which should make it much more capable in the heavy stuff. Will post a photo when it arrives!

[Matts67]

Very nice, congrats. I'm on a Ripmo at the moment and love it, but those new Hightowers sure are sweet.

[Dirk Hofman]

Originally Posted by Matts67

Very nice, congrats. I'm on a Ripmo at the moment and love it, but those new Hightowers sure are sweet.

Yeah, the Ripmo was on the shortlist for sure, they’re great bikes, congrats on owning one! A great climbing bike and similar geo numbers to the Hightower. Would have been happy with that choice for sure. A couple of my riding buddies have them and love them. I also considered the Evil Offering and the Transition Sentinel but couldn’t demo either new model. The Offering was just in between sizes for me and at the previous version in a large was great but not as capable or stable as the Hightower in the steep and chunky which we have a lot of in Santa Cruz, and the XL was a bit too large. The XL Hightower felt spot on. Santa Cruz having another size in their range gives better fit options for someone in between sizes like me.

[Kerbie]

Congratulations, Dirk... that sounds very exciting! Can't wait to see it.

[Matts67]

Originally Posted by Dirk Hofman

Yeah, the Ripmo was on the shortlist for sure, they’re great bikes, congrats on owning one! A great climbing bike and similar geo numbers to the Hightower. Would have been happy with that choice for sure. A couple of my riding buddies have them and love them. I also considered the Evil Offering and the Transition Sentinel but couldn’t demo either new model. The Offering was just in between sizes for me and at the previous version in a large was great but not as capable or stable as the Hightower in the steep and chunky which we have a lot of in Santa Cruz, and the XL was a bit too large. The XL Hightower felt spot on. Santa Cruz having another size in their range gives better fit options for someone in between sizes like me.

I agree and wish other manufacturers would broaden their sizing options a bit. For anyone over 6’2 or 6’3, I usually steer them away from Ibis due to the fact that their sizing runs on the smaller side, and they only offer up to an XL. The newer geo definitely makes sizing up easier which is nice. Glad you were able to find a killer bike in today’s crazy market - seems like there’s a crazy wait for just about anything.

[birkenweg42]

Congratulations on the new bike. I am a road cyclist but I have thought many times that it would make sense to get into it. It looks like a lot of fun. Happy trails to you.

[Dirk Hofman]

Originally Posted by Matts67

I agree and wish other manufacturers would broaden their sizing options a bit. For anyone over 6’2 or 6’3, I usually steer them away from Ibis due to the fact that their sizing runs on the smaller side, and they only offer up to an XL. The newer geo definitely makes sizing up easier which is nice. Glad you were able to find a killer bike in today’s crazy market - seems like there’s a crazy wait for just about anything.

Yep, I’m 6’ 2”, exactly my issue. I was super lucky to find it, in the color and build I wanted no less. My local shop wouldn’t even take an order, Santa Cruz isn’t shipping any more bikes this year. Apparently not cost effective given the new tariffs on carbon frames manufactured in China.

Originally Posted by birkenweg42

Congratulations on the new bike. I am a road cyclist but I have thought many times that it would make sense to get into it. It looks like a lot of fun. Happy trails to you.

Thank you! I was a road cyclist for 20 years, and got into MTB 5 years ago. I just started feeling very exposed on the road with everyone’s head in their phones and all the swerving I was seeing out on the road. I love both, but MTB has been so much more social for me. It’s more like skiing, where folks chat on the ride up together, blast down the hill, then gather at the bottom and talk about the descent.

My current group of riding buddies, some of whom have become good friends off the bike as well, broke off from a mountain biking group on Meetup. The Meetup group was a. Great place to meet folks to ride with initially, and this was a bunch of folks of similar abilities and pace who decided to start riding as a smaller group. The Meetup groups had a wide range of skills and pace, and there was a lot of waiting around for slower riders. Anyway, I love it and Northern California is basically MTB heaven. We all feel incredibly lucky to live and ride here.

[birkenweg42]

Originally Posted by Dirk Hofman

Thank you! I was a road cyclist for 20 years, and got into MTB 5 years ago. I just started feeling very exposed on the road with everyone’s head in their phones and all the swerving I was seeing out on the road. I love both, but MTB has been so much more social for me. It’s more like skiing, where folks chat on the ride up together, blast down the hill, then gather at the bottom and talk about the descent.

My current group of riding buddies, some of whom have become good friends off the bike as well, broke off from a mountain biking group on Meetup. The Meetup group was a. Great place to meet folks to ride with initially, and this was a bunch of folks of similar abilities and pace who decided to start riding as a smaller group. The Meetup groups had a wide range of skills and pace, and there was a lot of waiting around for slower riders. Anyway, I love it and Northern California is basically MTB heaven. We all feel incredibly lucky to live and ride here.

Mountain biking seems more and more appealing to me the older I get. I used to think that I could deal with the traffic but it has increased significantly in our area over the last couple of years. And so has the mutual disrespect between cyclists and drivers. The accident that killed five cyclists in Vegas might have been the last straw. It has been on my mind every time I have been on the bike for the last couple of days.
We have a new bike shop in town and I talked to the owners about converting to tubeless for gravel riding.

[Dirk Hofman]

Originally Posted by birkenweg42

Mountain biking seems more and more appealing to me the older I get. I used to think that I could deal with the traffic but it has increased significantly in our area over the last couple of years. And so has the mutual disrespect between cyclists and drivers. The accident that killed five cyclists in Vegas might have been the last straw. It has been on my mind every time I have been on the bike for the last couple of days.
We have a new bike shop in town and I talked to the owners about converting to tubeless for gravel riding.

Yeah! Gravel or mountain, getting off the roads is nice. I guess it just depends on how many trails of each are in your area and who you’re riding with. Gravel bikes aren’t cheap but they’re less than mountain bikes for sure.

That accident has been in my mind a lot as well, it’s such a tragedy for those families.

[imwjl]

Originally Posted by Dirk Hofman

Another mountain bike, this one with more travel than my current one which has only 120mm. A Santa Cruz Hightower with 145mm and a much slacker geometry which should make it much more capable in the heavy stuff. Will post a photo when it arrives!

Nice. I'm sticking in between with reverse mullet 130/140 and closer to 67 than 66 for slack. I also have one of the OG modern hardtails (Honzo). Wider rims is tempting. I did that with the Honzo (31 mm inner) and have not quite wider (26 mm inner) rims with trail bike.

Reality of sexagenarian set in this past year+. I still ride expert stuff, will do low level flight, but my last gap jump was a concussion. I ride with my multi-focal glasses more.

I think we're at peak slack and my bike industry and bike engineer friends have sort of confirmed it. It's cool there are so many great bikes these days.

Add me to your list of curious to try the Transitions. I had a Covert when things started to get modern. Horst-types when everything else was crap. I'd like to see how much less a new Horst-type would wallow when you're out of seat. My DJ bike is a Transition but these days my teenager uses it.

Originally Posted by birkenweg42

Mountain biking seems more and more appealing to me the older I get. I used to think that I could deal with the traffic but it has increased significantly in our area over the last couple of years. And so has the mutual disrespect between cyclists and drivers. The accident that killed five cyclists in Vegas might have been the last straw. It has been on my mind every time I have been on the bike for the last couple of days.
We have a new bike shop in town and I talked to the owners about converting to tubeless for gravel riding.

Try modern trail bikes and be slow or long enough shopping to sense differences, and be careful about being too influenced by someone who's not you. For ages the industry made what racers and extremes wanted. Now there are lots of models for every niche.

Find trail groups for a best bet on diverse interests, and friendly fun people. I've enjoyed the trail, infrastructure and people who give time part as much as the riding. I do lots of activities but all over the off road riding and digger people seem to be the greatest - the fun, the personalties, the diversity and attitudes. Something really sweet and entertaining my my area plus the many I visit is the way young and old mix.

[Dirk Hofman]

If you don’t like slack head tube angles, Transition probably isn’t for you. My buddy has a 2020 Sentinel and it’s 63.6! He rides the steeps at UC Santa Cruz every day, so it makes sense for him, but I thought it was a bit much. Maybe their short travel 29 the Spur would work for you, I think it’s 66, but the rest of the lineup is super slack. At 65.5 / 65.2 the Hightower seems to sit right in the pocket I was looking for, aggressive but still maneuverable without having to throw ones weight forward in the corners.

Shorter offset forks like the 44 mm seem to be helping make slacker bikes just as easy to move around as steeper ones with the 51 mm offset. Trek has been slow to adopt really slack angles for better or worse, but they gave their Enduro bike the Slash 160mm travel and a 64.1 head tube for 2021, so they have come around. Not surprised they feel that’s as far as things will go, they have been pushed by the market it would seem.

[Dirk Hofman]

Unboxing and initial setup under way!