Another new toy!

Sold off a couple mountain bikes and will soon own my dream bike. It is pretty much this bike I'm going to post a picture of except it is green (PERFECT!).

Here she is:



I ordered almost the exact same bike there, it is a Transition Covert, the new model which isn't in production yet but should be here in early June.

Specs are all here:

New Toy Alert!!!! 2004 Raleigh Grand Prix

Accidental post back there... (don't hit enter in the Title field or else it will submit your blog).

Well Northern Virginia is home to many bike path's and cycling is very prominent in the city so I figured why not add a road bike to the stable.

I looked around, at first I was thinking of dropping 1k on a new mongoose cyclocross bike... now I know mongoose isn't the greatest out there but they have been getting better over the years, and I have a special place in my heart for them... the first bicycle I bought 100% on my own (175 dollars in quarters to be exact) was a mongoose villian. They still produce the villian today... it's almost worth getting one for the memories :).

I ended up deciding to just spend less and maybe look used. Well as fate would have it I found my bike very fast. I currently live in Raleigh, NC... fate? I know what size I was looking for 56-58cm according to online sources. I searched craigslist for each size 56cm, 57cm, 58cm. Had a couple options, but one looked really neat... well because it was all black, and I LOVE black bikes. It was the title to this post, a 2004 Raleigh Grand Prix.

I e-mailed the add late Sunday night and the individual, Rocky... fate? (best friends dog's name... ha!), responded the next morning, I called after researching the bike and swung by for a preliminary test ride. I was SHOCKED when I saw the bike. He had ridden it previously from Raleigh, NC to Washington D.C... right where I will be working next year... fate?

The bike was IMMACULATE. It was 5 years old and looked like it was just off the showroom floor. Really a stunner when it came to condition, only things I could find on it were some scrapes on the shifter/brakes probably from laying on it's side or leaning against say the Washington monument :).

Rocky hadn't ridden the bike in a couple or few years so he said it would definitely need a tune up. I hopped on the bike for a test ride and was shocked to find that it shifted flawlessly (once I remembered how single lever shifter/brake combo's worked), the bike rolled perfectly, each wheel true. And it was just smooth and felt too good. I honestly was shocked at the quality of this $850 MSRP back in '04 bike.

I was going to try to haggle him but I found out he only posted the bike a few minutes before I responded... fate? And I felt he should be rewarded for keeping this bike in such good condition so i didn't even bring up price. I had him hold it until the evening, got the OK from the fiance, and picked it up that night.

Alright enough blabbing, here are the pictures! Sorry for the quality, night in an apartment with a shitty camera = shitty pictures.

Transition BottleRocket is GONE!

I don't really like this post but I will put it up anyways. I just sold my prized possession. The Transition BottleRocket which I had in dream configuration is gone. Someone purchased it on eBay and I dropped it and the spare parts off at the bike shop tonight and they are going to take care of shipping it so it was the last time I will ever see it.

Let me remaniss about this bike...

I sold a slingshot farmboy 29er for at least a $300 loss and a transition Vagrant at an $1100 (I know) loss to purchase this bike for $1500. I got the bike and soon realized why it was 1500... shit parts all around, only thing I kept original on the bike literally were the handlebars, every single other piece from bottom bracket to the headset was replaced with new or new take off from another bike.

Everything purchased from Tree Fort Bikes or eBay. I swapped the parts with the vagrant before I sold that so I got wheels, and brakes from that. Everything else had to be replaced.

The marzocchi 66 ETA it came with had seen better days, replaced with a new take off rock shox dominion coil which I converted to u-turn. New headset that wasn't a 1 and one eighth conversion headset, new stem for the 1.5" steerer tube, new cranks cause his were a joke, new pedals, then a Yess ETR-D tensioner and a single speed kit and tadah... I had my dream bike, a slopestyle/freeride single speed bottlerocket.

I had the bike from november to now in may and it saw dirt... ZERO times. Work, location, lack of riding buddies has caused my complete lapse in freeriding. I have been trail riding 2-3 times a week this season so far but there is nothing within 4 hours that resembles a lift park.

Financially it was the right thing to do though, now I have funds to put towards the Sunday Model-C which I'm not 100% sure I'll ride much more! Ha!

Saving for a post on the local forum which is currently broke.

I ride alone 99% of the time, but I would love to have a nice picture of me actually on the bike (instead of the 100 photo's I have of my bikes that I take personally).

My dad goes to a lot of motorcycle rallies and there are usually photographers taking good quality photo's at scenic locations of anyone riding their bike. They ride by and the photographer takes a pic of everyone, gives them their card, then if you want to buy the photo you go to the website and look up the date/time you rode by and you can order prints or buy the digital.

Anyone do anything like that for mountain biking? A nice shot in the woods going down the trail that you can buy the digital from?

I don't want a personal photo opp just a nice professional quality still or two for the picture books. Anything like this happen at any trail days or anything like that?

Thanks!