The Heckler finally showed up on Tuesday. We thought it showed up last week — Bill at Adventure gave me a call, then 5 min later called back and said it was a Superlight in the box instead. DOH! But this time there was no mistaking. Giddy with happiness, I loaded the parts into a box and stopped in first thing on Wednesday morning. The frame was beautiful, the color was awesome, and the details and workmanship that went into the frame were apparent right away — lots of nice, smart little touches. Especially compared to some of the silly things on the Blur and Superlight, it was nice to see the little changes over a few years — shows SC ain’t big fat and happy. The frame felt great in my hands, but so do most of ’em — it continues to amaze me how light and precise a good frame feels, belying the power it will soon have.

Thursday mid-day, Bill calls, and I know there is a catch. The RP23 shock we thought would fit, would not, and there are none to be had from SC or Fox. So I hemmed and hawed and weight-weenied and ultimate went with the DHX 5 coil. It will add a pound, but will add another degree of toughness to the bike. The remaining option of the base level Float R shock would not have options enough to help with this sloshy bike on varying all-mountain rides. It will probably overbuild the bike for me, but who knows I might need that soon enough, as I was catching more air on my first ride then I ever have before.

Earliest I could get to the shop was 5, which meant lots of other customers. Oh well… A test ride in my shoes and pedals, and what can I say the bike showed its nature even in the parking lot. I immediately could feel the stability and deeper travel. Just bunny hopping in the lot I could pick up the bike higher and be more stable than on the Blur. But it was slow, slow rolling due to the Nevegal tires and the sloshiness. Details…

We took off the big ring, which will fit the Blur. Yea!!! actually making some money back in parts! and it came with a chainstay guard too! alas, just last week I put a new big ring on the Blur, not sure if the Heckler’s would fit and finally ready to give the Blur a freshy now that it won’t much be back on technical rides, oh and the chain was completely slipping. The ring will be used eventually, I had 4 old ones sitting in a shoebox awaiting their future lives as windchimes. The bash guard in the shop was heavier than I’da liked, but that seems to be the cost of real protection. We’ll see next time I ride lower National and hit the unclearable-without-sparks rock that I have yet to clear without sparks. Some tweaking to the front deraileur took more time still, but I got to watch the work and learned a thing about the cranks and ring bolts.

Finally got it dialed in, got my extra parts while in the window-of-maximum discount, including a gratuitous but cool looking Adventure jersey. Price came out almost exactly like I figured. Assuming the parts sales go as planned, it will all end up at about $3550 for the whole deal including shoes, pedals, fork upgrade and related work. I could have save maybe $250 in tax and costs by buying online. I don’t think its worth it, support your LBS, though I’m torqued so much of my extra money goes to the gubament.

A quick stop at Trader Joe’s was required, cause if I get home late AND drop 3k I gotta at least ply Beckie with some Mackeson’s sweet stout. She was appreciative, and made salad while I got everything unloaded and sorted and caught up on work for a couple hours. While I did stay up til 3:30 screwing with the bike, in fairness, I worked on work work til 11 when I finally cracked a beer and opened up the shock manuals.

When I finally hit the garage around midnight, the first thing I desperately wanted to know was how goddam much it weighed. But first, I thought I should frame the questions by figuring out what the Blur weighed. Perhaps I would not be so sad.

29 lbs, will drop 2 with new tubes, wheels and tread

This led to further curiosity and investigation.

Superlight – 29.5 lbs – tubes, G’s bracket will drop 2 lbs

Roadie – 21 lbs

Beckie’s Roadie – 24.5 lbs

32.5 lbs

tiny

I had a bitch setting up the spring and getting the sag right, the instructions were confusing as hell and measuring sag by yourself in a sticky garage is far from scientific. Took me an hour on reverse engineering with giant springs and nuts to come close, and in the fracas the Heckler got its first scratch.

This is, naturally, a place it would otherwise be incredibly unlikely to get a scratch. It was as unnecessary as when Jo gave G her first scar on her paw. Went to the shop later to get some help, and the sag turned out to be 18mm, which was really just about perfect for my weight.

The fork was far easier. thankfully, cause I was fading. Alex and I were committed to riding in the morning, and I felt that the bike would get fair shake and I’d get some useful info out of the first ride.