The Tour of California dates and routes are up. If Mr. Ullrich makes an appearance, I could very well find myself traveling in February! Interesting who the Tour sponsor is....

http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/9119.0.html

http://www.eurosport.com/home/pages/v4/ ... 5418.shtml

Very cool. I've always wanted to see a day or two of the Tour in France. I guess seeing this would be more realistic.

Also, anyone bought a new frame/bike lately? I'm talking MTB...I have a '97 Klein hardtail that I love, but I think it's time for disc brakes and possibily a full suspension setup. I won't buy for a few months. In the near future I'll comb mtbr, but for now I figured I'd ask here. thanks

Yeah - try a Blur. Only running about $4000 these days.

I'm pretty happy with my hardtail - but it's got a good SPV fork, discs, and fat tires. I wouldn't go the full-suspension route unless I could find something pretty sturdy and controlled on the back end. Dream bike = Blur, but that's totally out of the question until I hit the Powerball.

As you apparently know, the mtbr classifieds are like gold for used high-end bikes.

Oh, and thanks for the link dnorwood.

I saw this in the paper this a.m. and it absofuckinglutely rawks.

This will do wonders for cycling. 8)

Thanks for the linkage- I was only able to skim it at work.

fp

Just got a replacement frame today for my cracked Enduro. Specialized heard Monday my frame was cracked, and 4 days later, it's here. They rock. Here's a pic of the new frame. Click on it for a bigger pic.

I have several bikes, an On-One singlespeed, a Cannondale SS and the Enduro. I fricking love full suspension, and I would buy another Specialized in a heartbeat. I had a C-dale Jeckyl for a couple years- broke 2 frames & 4 swingarms on those. They kept replacing them, and when everything was new, I sold it.

They've got the shocks dialed now so the bike doesn't bob when you pedal, but even so, the little bob on my bike doesn't bother me. I use the Enduro for both commuting and trails.

I'd highly recommend FS. It's a blast!

See you on MTBR. I'm usually on the NorCal board, General or Passion.

fp

Edit: The brown tube in the pic is just a cardboard spacer. The shock from my old frame will take its place.

Funny you mention the Blur because that is the bike my cycling freak friend highly recommended last weekend. Decked out $4000 is probably accurate. If I was to get a high end frame, I'd want to go ALL IN component wise.

ha, all this talk about full suspension and disc brakes... when we did our ride down Haleakala on Maui, the company we went through put us on Gary Fisher bikes (have no idea what model) with suspension and disc brakes. I'd never ridden anything like it before. Of course, Mr. dnorwood took a wrong turn, after we'd gone downhill about a mile, so of course, we had to climb back up. When I got out of the saddle to pedal, I felt like I was on a pogo stick, the handlebars were going up and down so much. It was very weird feeling. But the disc brakes were great!

Yeah, I'm a pretty avid hardtail fan, but when I rode in Hawaii a couple of years ago the guy at the shop INSISTED we rent full sus'. We were way glad we did -- all that lava rock and generally cliffy nature of HA pretty much requires it. My ass still felt like I had spent the night in an Alabama lock-up the next day.

The rumor is that full suspension bikes now are phenominal and that pogo stick feeling is gone, unless you want it there. you can lock out the rear suspension on the fly, so when you're climbing, make that back end stiff with a quick twist of a knob. (how weird does that sound?) I always thought I'd never do full-suspension, but after you ride a decent full-suspension rig you realize just how nice that shit really is.

wuss!

Actually, I'm so used to riding my road bike these days, that the huge seat on the rental bike felt uncomfortable. I had to raise the seat really high because otherwise I would have looked like an adult on a kid's tricycle, legs all bowed out to the side to accommodate the short distance to the pedals. As for soreness, I don't get it anymore. I'm probably opening myself up for a joke here. Be kind.

the official link: http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/

It's cool, I understand. Married life has a tendency to "season" some soft places, I've heard. The result of "keeping things interesting."

This thread is about to make me ditch the last 2 hrs. of work and get out on my bike before it gets dark.