Hot wheels

Thank you GT.

So this came in the mail Saturday. I wanted to take a photo of the box because it was MASSIVE. Seriously one of the tallest bike boxes I have ever seen. When I opened the box it looked like my box was lost in there. Peering out me.



Here it is peering out at you.
I am pumped to get on this bike and see what it can do. I need to trim the bars down a bit to better fit my bird like shoulders, but out of the box it feels great. Glad I went with the small instead of the medium. The mandatory blast around the neighborhood in 30 MPH winds and 20 degree temps showed that the bike is ready to rumble. Really felt great. I am going to try and get out on it Thursday morning.
As it is, pie plate and all, the bike weighs in at a respectable 26.2 pounds. It would be easy to shave weight in a few places, but it feels really svelte when on it.

Let's take a half second to talk about spec. A lot companies will upgrade the rear der because that's where you look when checking bikes out. But really, a bike with Deore shifters and an XTR rear der is going to shift like a Deore bike. Lets me honest. GT however, upgraded the SHIFTERS. actually making a noticeable difference in the ride of the bike. So it may be a full XT bike, but it shifts like an XTR bike, hot. Also, in my opinion, there is no better lever shape than Shimanos. I love the old XTR v-brake levers on my IBIS and this new Marathon has XT hydraulics that use the same lever shape. Happy fingers all around. There is no skimping any where on this bike, and I didn't get a special version, this is the same thing hitting floors all across the country.
Kenda Stick-E rubber tires, Mavic Cross Trail wheels with Center Lock. XT rotors. XT everything but shifters, and those are XTR. Remote lock-out! The new Fox remote lock-out is baller. Hit it with the thumb and bump it with the knuckle. Sweet.

In other news, it was a ton of fun to visit Providence the last weekend. Ali and I had a blast. We even walked from White Electric land to Thayer St. Then back downtown to dinner at Local 121. Awesome. Return trip soon for the King of Burlingame TT. Also the GT debut race of the year. We'll see how it goes. Well I should hope. I have been expirementing with the rear pressure already to make sure I have it dialed in. I think it's going to take some time for sure.

In other news, 3 cheers for Ax Men. I love this show. I also read in the paper that one of the crews got in trouble for illegally logging somewhere. Though, it hasn't come up yet in the show and I don't want to Google it in order to maintain the element of surprise.
There is not too much riding news. It has been 50 some days and 20 the next. But the smell of spring is strong in the air. With it comes fun.

When I have more to report... you'll hear about it. Thursday most likely.
I'll try and get bring the camera to get some photos of the woods.

Here is a photo of the view from our front porch. It was too cold to walk down to the water for a better photo.
See you soon.