Recovery & The Abomination

After yesterday's horrible performance on the bike I went into recovery mode today. Sort of by force with some B-Man Dad/Husband duties, and sort of 'cause I just needed to chill, hydrate, and focus on the rest of the week so as NOT to melt down at the Hilly Billy on Saturday.

Speaking of the HBR....

OPERATION KILLY BILLY is in full effect and with the help of Jordan at the shop I have the Salsa Ti E.M. ready for whatever the back roads of West Virginia throw at me this week. I call it (with props to D-POW) The Abomination...

I looked into getting a cross bike for some adventures and races like the Hilly Billy, Southern Cross, etc., but right now, other than the 2010 Jake The Snake (a great value IMHO), no cross bike (for what I want to do with it) is really speaking to me in terms of price/size/parts/etc. There was a Bianchi Axis cross bike the shop had sort of caught my eye, but I would have wanted to make some upgrades to it and I don't have the cash right now. So in the end, it just wasn't worth the money. The bike would have cost a grand, and been as heavy, or heavier than The Abomination you see above with the only advantage being a bigger chain ring up front. It was cheaper (with the help of Pro Bike and an eBay score on a fork), to just convert the EM to an evil hybrid cross machine of death.

By rolling the Salsa TiEM I will get to use a bike that I love and that I'm 100% comfortable on. I'll have a wwwwide ass gear range to haul my ass up the hills of WV/PA, the stopping power of disc brakes, tubeless tires and the feel of Ti beneath my buttocks. It also comes complete with the built in excuse of "but I was on a mountain bike" when I come in dead f*cking last! LOL!

So sure it's an "abomination" to turn what maybe the best mountain bike I ever owned into a hybrid/cross bike, but right now it's the right thing to do and I'll make the best of it.

Later.