Dropkick Murphys – Black Velvet Band
After about 3-4 months of serious thought, and more like 18 months and 50 commutes to my office of brainstorming, I finally figured out that I want a fast commuter bike, not a kid tow-er or crossover SS. 95% of my miles for this bike are commuting or around-towning, where I want to go fast on streets, paths, canals and easy singletrack. And after one-too-many sluggish mornings, I got absofuckingluteley sick of The Unholy Abomination, which when I weighed on a hanging scale came out just <30lbs.
Rage had a Masi Special CX on the floor for quite some time, in a 53cm…just my size. Steel frame, LXish components, 24.5 lbs for $800. I could probably do better building a bike with a frame, or spending $300 more on a Salsa La Cruz, or finding an old steel frame behind a dumpster and restoring it — I saved $1k easy on the Hei Hei by shopping around — but I just didn’t want to invest the effort for something so functional when it would only save a few benjamins at best, and i know pitifully little about roadie parts. After a short spin around the ‘hood, I asked if I could demo it for a ride home and bring it back in the morning. Thanks Rage! What a perfect test ride!
First time I’ve ridden a CX bike, and it reminded me of a punk song – tuff, nimble and bullish. The handling and ride were good, the steel providing better dampening then aluminum and the spd pedals supplying more confidence than road pedals. Acceleration was not racy-sharp, but just fine for urban and commute and way better than a full sus mtb. I hit every curb, bump, canal and a 1 ft drop that I do on my Superlight, and the bike handled it enough to give me confidence for commuting in traffic. Shaved 5 min off my best commute time, and I was not at my strongest, probably shaved 10 min off what I would have done on the SL. I didn’t notice the LX components one bit.
I also rode with G on her little bike, Kila and my father on the Heckler down to the pink park. Watching a 70-yr old engineer ride a couch bike was at once hysterical and horrifying. I managed to keep them all safe and in control, despite being bent like a pretzel holding Kila in one hand and the brake lever on the drop bars in the other. But it doable, and not nearly as unstable as I thought it would be. On the way back i got G to forget about the hill by saying “we need to help Pop-Pop climb the hill“. she was very concerned, and aided by a water break, forgot all about the looming climb. Stuart put the bike down hot-rodding while G paused, served him right, ditching his granddaughter like that. Fortunately he was ok since I couldn’t very well leave G by the side of the road to go check.
This style of bike really hits the mark for my needs, especially now that I’ve decided a SS mtb is, if ever, going to be a separate purchase. I’ve been looking at comparable steel CX bikes like the Salsa La Cruz, Surly CrossCheck – both seem comparable parts, maybe a tad lighter, ~$200 more and not on-hand. Kona and Performance offer comparable specs and price but lighter aluminum frames, which will be harsh rides and sluggish builds. Yeti and a few others have 4-5lb lighter aluminum frames for ~$1k more — prolly a nicer ride, but that’s a lot more to pay.
I waffled, i dithered, i analyzed and overanalyzed. My indecisiveness led to one of the greatest slanders in recent memory by my bud Doug:
Oh for the love of god. Are you sure you weren’t born with a vagina? Wait…sorry ladies…I didn’t mean to offend your gender with the association of Jason. That would be a slap in the face to you all.
Shamed into action, I busted out the credit card, but the second-guessing had just begun. I wanted a 1×9, and thought I wanted some sort of rising mustache or bully bar, keeping much of the aggressive roadie geo but a better beer-drinking and dog-restraining posture. We tried mustache bars, and for the life of me I tried to like them, but after probably 6 hours and multiple visits to Rage…requiring tweaks, profuse apologies, and a bottle of El Jimedor Gold to say thanks for all my bullshit…I finally gave up and went back to the original setup. I cant say enough how awesome the guys at Rage were for trying to give me what I thought I wanted.
It finally got the build on the eve before Halloween, and oddly enough the day I sold the Superlight. Dealing with CraigsList was as frustrating as finding handlebars I liked. Some nice people who simply didn’t want the bike or were too far off on price, some jackasses and lowballers and freaks. In the end, CL gave me another good experience without fees, and the buyer got a bike he was excited about. Out only $300 after selling the Unholy Abomination and many parts that I would never use again, with a buzz jumpstarted by the work happy hour, and having a bike needing a debut, I rolled up the street to the Rage Halloween cruiser ride. I thought I would not be able to make this huge party on wheels — parents simply do not get to go on pub crawls! But karma was clearly in my camelback, along with my laptop, cable lock, warm clothes, HID battery and light, tools I needed to sell the Superlight, and various libations. My cosutme was really not all that, but my giant head, 20lb pack, and slippery shoes merited an A for effort to go with my parental mulligan.
There were about 100 people in the parking lot of Rage when I got there, didn’t really know anyone, so found a quiet spot against the wall and had a beer. Many of my riding circle arrived, and I eventually ran into a lot of old ultimate and riding friends. All this in a giant drunken costumed peloton, a mosh pit on 2 wheels 350 strong, blocking Scottsdale road each hour as we hit 5 different bars. The photos I’ve seen don’t scratch the surface of being shoulder-to-shoulder in traffic, staring at people’s costumes and girls in lingerie devil costumes, with a 12 pack falling apart in my hands. After doing shots at the last stop, I eventually made my way 19 miles home. On the way in that morning, I made it in 48 minutes, easily 10 better than my best. The way home was considerably slower and sloppier, especially after I hit a curb wrong and gave the bike its first scratch and myself a nice little head lac. They don’t do much damage but they sure do bleed. The brakes got misaligned and rubbed the whole way home, which I did not notice, I just felt very tired and needed to stop halfway for another slug from the vodka mountain dew in my water bottle, arriving home at 3:30am. but the Masi took the hits and kept me rolling fast in the cold and the dark. So punk rock.
