cross delusional
and so ~ the new Jake da Snake is definitely a stock bike. I couldn't argue with the price and there weren't any better offers out there ... so, it was what got snagged on the hook.
The Pros:
- quick and agile. the angles are good and the ride sweet & sultry. as a brother who has run steel for many years ... i forgot what it's like to have a tight little alyu-minnie-um frame underneath you.
it jumps, squirrel-like. - light ... this bike weighs under 18 pounds, i think. that's pretty much the weeniest i've ever been. the majority of the poundage comes off the fork - one of the Easton carbon mono-cocks.
combined with the alu frame-age ... this makes for a very, very stiff and chattery ride. I can feel the difference pretty significant on the washboards ... bumpatanutza.
. . .but, is there a bit of snappage in my future?
even at the flyweights ... i break lots of stuff.
fingers crossed, yo. - ca-lore ~ baby, i'm tellin' you ... nobody will be missin' me streaking through the darkened forest. as Sabine says, that shit is road construction orange.
hell yeah.
Cons:
- orange bike, yellow tufos, shit eating grin.
fashion police will be setting tazers to "puree"
- too small and too big at the same time.
I'm a firm believer that you fit a bike from the ass forward. For me, I'm a dude who digs a seat angle of 71 degrees. Not a stock option for those in the know. And so, as g-nome noted, the saddle is slammed mo' den legal on this Kona because the seattube angle is quite a bit steeper than my preferred.
Once I get the ass set up to generates the power right and true ... then I move on to the upper body. As da'PAB will attest, I like to have an upper body much more compact than most riders. I like my hands in close and my arms bent and relaxed ... able to absorb loads of shockage and ergonomic to support my huge noggin (the ego balloon).
Unfortunado ... the top tube is where things go haywire on stock bikes. On the new Kona ... the top tube, even on a 52cm frame design ... is still way out there. And so, I'm running a 90mm stem that could easily be an 80mm. Bummer.
But, more shytey is that on the 52cm they run a very, very short head tube. Yeah, yeah ... this is utter snoresville gab for most all ... but, I'm fat and happy from food and brew at the moment and feel like tapping out some unedited bikegeekblather.
delete now.
anywho ~ with the nubby design of the head tube ... that means i've got to throw on 45 spacers to get my bars up high enough to ride my ride.
... on a carbon fork, yo.
And what's more ... that nubber head tube and slightly sloping geometry = no triangle to speak of.
bummer.
ok ~ enough dork speak. I've got to pen somethin' mo' poetic in the next couple days or go mad.
MAD I TELL YOU!
23 comments:
you should borrow Bunny's ritchey adjust-o-stem. It might get you high enough, and the weight penalty will get the poundage on that rig back into the legal zone...
and, as PAB can attest...
you ride with your bars in so close to you that it is a wonder that you are not constantly flipping over the front end...
I went stockage too. Here's my ride:
Tri-Cross
Couldn't beat the price plus who knows if I'll end up even racing the thing the way things are going now... :(
you two have been spending too much time together if pab can attest that you like to have your hands in close and your arms bent and relaxed
and his knees bent more than most...
hey Gin...Specialized? I didn't know they made bicycles...
Going from steel to Alu- major difference for me, good on the power transfer, unnerving on the washboard stuff at first.
I think Empella really has it right for the crossin' action with the short top tube.
Now I just gotta make Empella-size coin...
Nothing like trying to stay in stride up a hill when you just whacked your arm b/c it didn't slip through the small triangle.
With the small triangle, I'd spend more than a few minutes in the practice field shouldering the bike. I've got the same problem and until that little transition part is smoothed out, my shoulder and elbows are gonna scream.
Minnesota CX starts in 2 weeks... love it. Can't knock the smile off my face.
massive crown... I know that Apple-Jacks-Maynard dude is close to the tri-cross and I was wondering why the crown of the tri-cross is so massive and bulky looking. Maybe AJM can chime in and let us know.
I like the bike geek talk.
Ultra stubby stem and a large stack under it? Hah, welcome to my World.
"What do you mean this stem doesn't come in a 75?!!!"
try these colors... Orange isn't so bad. I remember the Specialized Pro MTB team in the late '80s having to deal with snide remarks regarding their pink bikes.
No kiddin. Men on pink bikes.
my cross bike that really isn't mine but one that i've borrowed and never retured is an orange Kona. i think orange is a faaabulous color.
did i just write "retured"?
returd??
Hmmm... Sounds to me like you should have got a Rock Lobster....
PAB ~ pervert.
Gin ~ you've got to come out ... if only to make fun of PAB trying to get over barriers.
BunX ~ double pervert
Geeyanni ~ Empella ... two zipcodes out of my price range.
cLeary ~ i'm dreading those practice sessions. stupid shouldering...
aNony ~ AJM is massive and bulky looking ... why shouldn't his crosseybike be, too?
gNome ~ we probably shouldn't bring attention to our short stubbies.
aNonyDos ~ i'd kill for a pink bike.
Marsykitty ~ that's my new bike paint color ... returd.
joshybarb ~ one zipcode out of my price range.
pLutin ~ i'm on it.
team returd!
Well at least it is light enough and small enough to stick it in your skinsuit pocket to run with it.......
I had a "Why Orange" Quattro Assi years back, and I really liked the color.......
pink bikes rule! orange bikes too! I think my next bike will be pink and orange.
I'm happy with the low-key black color - wouldn't want to draw any attention to my riding ability (or lack thereof). Oh wait, the sombrero...
The crown is beefy - it is carbon, so they probably erred on the side of caution with that bad boy. And it has those fancy schmancy Zertz inserts or whatever they're called, so that might have impacted the scale.
I know a doctor in mexico who will resize your arms and shoulders to fit in the front triangle better.
Dont bang that elbow on your big ring.. ouchi-wawa
Write some more poetric blabbers.. I need a good cry.. snif snif
Combat orange!
ha ~ i remember that race. I remember you nutting it up a little roadie hill cuz you saw a moment of hesitation in me and the couple other boys riding along with you.
and then you had a wee gap of a few seconds but i thought, "yeah, no problem ... let that little boy hang out there for a bit."
and then, there was this off-camber droppy-do section that i had been fucking up the first few laps and finally blew completely. Perhaps it was because I hadn't had any actual dirt riding, perhaps it was my bald as butt $12 tread, perhaps it was being "on the rivet" ... but, i went down hard and snapped off a shifter.
that irks me.
as for this year ~ i've traded fitness for bike handling. maybe i'll be able to rally some big lungs for November ... right about the time you're doing 6 hour days to get ready for Cali.
oh ... and if you look at Ridley or Empella cx bike geometries ~ they all have slacker seattube angles, not steeper.
that's an ugly bike... until you get on it, then it'll be sexy as shit...
hmmmmmmm.....blah blah blah.....
My last rig was too big frame wise and I compensated with the short stem move.
It seemed like every race at some point I would forget the instability/ quickness of the short stem and wash the front wheel at a inopportune time.
I went a little smaller on this one for me which looks a little goofy and is still a work in progress but so far is working better.
Interesting to hear different opinions- I seem to be sliding the saddle back a little but staying lower as opposed to rotating forward.
much like on a mtb, i find myself sliding all over the place on the saddle in cross races.
... way back for power of bumpies, and on the nose for steep climbs when weight needs to be forward.
overall, i'd prefer a seat tube angle farther back than the Jake ... but it's definitely better than most road bikes of US labels. The Kona bikes are designed pretty well on the seat angles, but are a bit long on the tubes for my liking. but, gotta say ... this bike rides pretty damn sweet. I may have 80% cannibalized bike parts on it (shut up PAB), but the Jake rides fukkin'A sweet.
gotta get the legs up and running to catch up with the new skillz, yo.
Post a Comment