I originally started this post at the beginning of February, but never got around to publishing it for some reason. Life just gets in the way sometimes. After looking back, I actually re-wrote a lot of the thoughts into the “Ides of March” post, but there was one snippet left out I would like to share still:

 I watched the superbowl the other night, and if you recall, there was a power outage early in the third quarter that suspended play for a good 35 minutes. When the players took to the field again, the head referee came on PA and said “Let’s Go” I think that is the most awesome thing I’ve ever heard one of those guys say, in the biggest of all games, to boot.

In some ways, circumstances have been similar for me as of late. The things I enjoy most in life have taken a back seat to work….

…and my thoughts kind of continue about being super busy, not riding much, paying off debt, that sort of thing. Of course, since then, the house sold. I have paid every dime of debt I to my name. I made mention of some exciting things to come in my last post. Well, those exciting things are here!

Let’s start with some bonafide in your face bragging rights. I normally try to keep my ego in check as well as try to be an overall humble person, but damnit, I’ve gone through enough crap the past few years to justify a complete bling bling post about what else?- brand spanking new kickass bikes! I haven’t bought a new performance bike in quite some time. Probably all the way back to 2009 when I think about it. The YBS was kinda new, but also kinda more of a prize, a fun bike if you will. Whenever my friends post pictures on Facebook of their new bikes that they get like every 9 months I’m like “who gives a crap?” or “ what was wrong with the last bike?” or “so what if your bike is $8k and 1 or 2 lbs lighter than mine or has the latest and greatest whatever-I’ll still kick your ass on my steel singlespeed or 1986 Trek Elance 440!”

That may still be true, but now, with some new machines in my clutches, I will really kick some ass, and have more fun doing it. I introduce to you not one, not even two, but THREE new bikes to the caveman stable. Eat your hearts out bike junkies.

Allow me to start with what I consider the coolest bike I have ever owned, despite probably being the heaviest bike I have ever owned, and bike that will never ever see the likes of any race course, lest it be of the cruiser pub crawl category- the Kona Ute.

This bike is the F-350 of bikes. It can haul however much crap you can strap to the cargo area, or, however much weight your legs can push up a 4% grade, which is about typical for some of the short hill bursts here in town. Anything over that, forget about it, you’re walkin’. But anyways, I picked this thing up used for $300, and although it needed a little TLC, I figured that someday it would pay for itself with a lot of trips to the grocery store, Home Depot, the Laundromat, commuting, giving cute girls a ride home after a few too many beers, and possibly some short distance camping trips. The dude I bought it from said he rode it from Telluride with a guitar strapped on, so I know for sure this bike has some mountain mojo to it.

Next up is the last hardtail 29er I might ever have to buy. My new love. My new bikepacking/MTBultra-distance / 24 hour racer supreme-the Kona Raijin.

For those of you who know bikes, you can skip the rest of this paragraph, but for those who don’t, let me delve a little deeper. This bike is handcrafted by Lynskey in Tennessee out of element 22, otherwise known as TITANIUM. I have always wanted to try out a Ti bike, but have never had the resources to do so, until now. I told myself I would only buy one or two nice things from the sale of the house, and this is thing #1. There is just something pure and beautiful about Ti that is hard to explain. It is metal extracted from the earth. It is smelted, purified, and manipulated into shapes according to function. It is then taken by a master craftsman and cut, mitered, and welded by extremely demanding processes into this work of art that can assembled as a bicycle. And not just any bike. One that has been meticulously designed by Kona, a legend in mountain bike performance. The original intent was to build this thing up with the all new top of the line 11 speed Sram XX1 groupset. Everything was in except for the hub driver needed to accept the unique cassette, which I had a hard time tracking down, but is currently being shipped. Wanting to ride this bike badly, it finally occurred to me to this rig has sliding dropouts, and can be run SINGLESPEED. After slapping myself on the head for tardily coming to this realization, and furthermore that I had all the parts necessary for a singlespeed build just laying around, I rushed home from work, threw together a SS build, then I took it out for test ride on the world famous Test Tracks here in Durango, aka Ned Overend Park. It was awesome. It was heavenly. It was the sweetest virgin ride I’d ever had (and I mean EVER, if you know what I mean 😉 )  As much as I like to rock the one cog, I will have some gears setup on this machine for some upcoming LOOONG races. Gears just make more sense in tour-type races in mountain terrain, especially as I add a few years. However, having felt the joy of the one gear on my first ride, you can bet this rig will see some awesome SS action down the road. That is the beauty of such a well thought out bike-lots of versatility. Raijin is Japenese for “God of Thunder” I kinda like that, but I might still give it another name when it comes to mind.

Last, I introduce you to the Volagi Viaje. Volagi is a new company out of California. Their philosophy is driven by long rides, and disc brakes on road bikes. As of now, they only offer two different models- a carbon framed road race oriented bike with disc brakes and an “adventure” steel framed road bike with disc brakes that can handle larger tires. I came across these guys on kickstarter, and feeling like they had something going, decided to contribute to their cause and in return got one of the steel frames. Other than the cool shape of this bike, it’s has some other cool features. It can handle large cyclocross tires up to 42mm, it is reasonably lightweight with the included sweet carbon fork. It has disc brakes which offer incredible control, and also means I can use my mountain bike wheels with it. It includes braze-ons for front and rear racks, and is designed to carry a moderate touring load.  I can still run road tires on it for training rides or local hammerfests. The Viaje has a HUGE gear range with a 2×10 setup (50/34 compact crank with 11-36 cassette) making it easy to cruise up mountains fully loaded or down them at full speed. It utilizes a tapered headtube and pressfit 30 bottom bracket, both of which increase the stiffness end efficiency of the bike. Volagi has a patented feature they call “bowflex stays” whereby the seat stays bypass a connection to the seat tube, as is standard, and instead are welded to the top tube a few inches ahead of the seat tube. The theory is that this isolates road vibration from the rear wheel and adds some cushion. Based on my initial observations, I’d agree it works! Lastly, it just feels fun and comfortable. I’ve already taken it on everything from paved road to gravel road to light trail and handles each admirably. This steed shall serve as handily weapon in road, cross, gravel grinders, touring, and whatever else I can come up that fits the bill.

Ok, so bike bragging is out of the way. Part 2 of Go Time shortly to follow, and trust me, it will be real exciting news, not boring bike stuff. I promise…