Alright It's Official
Before I go on to yammer about a couple other things I want to say how stoked I am to ride for Fisher in an official capacity. I've been riding Fishers for two years now, last year the shop helped me out with a Fisher Rig, but the year before I had picked up a Rig because that's what I wanted to ride.
After riding mountain bikes seriously for well over a decade I have learned that the geometry of a bicycle frame has much more to do with the way a bike feels than the materials it is made out of or the price tag that hangs off it on the showroom floor. Fisher has the geometry dialed and the price is right.
Position foot in close proximity to mouth and prepare to insert...
So everyone and their Grandmother has a small frame building shop these days. Some companies or builders stand out but for the most part you've got guys slapping together steel and titanium tubes (or gluing hunks of carbon they got from god knows where into them) in a very similar fashion. It comes down to how nice the paint job is to differentiate one from another.
People pay crazy money for these frames. I built my Rig up last year with full Bontrager Race X Lite stuff for less than it would have cost to get a frame from a custom builder. It was the best bike I've ever owned. Honestly I didn't even like the color. My nephew won't eat off a plate with a picture of the The Little Mermaid on it. Does it effect the way the food tastes? No, of course not, this is insane, but he's five so he's excused. I'm sort of an adult so I understand that the color of my bike has nothing to do with how it rides. I'm looking ten feet ahead of me, not down at my top tube.
Full disclosure. Yes the bike broke. Bikes break, it's part of riding bikes. I've seen countless custom frames break, often in frightening ways. I've seen people wait months and months to get their repaired frames back. I've waited six months myself, it's no fun. Wanna know how long I waited to get my warrantied Fisher back? Less than a week. They even upgraded me to a Ferrous
for no charge and offered to paint it any color I wanted. I liked the stock color, so that's what I asked for.
Not everyone can afford to buy a hand built car, most people can't, People like Michael Ball drive hand built cars, people like me drive Subarus. The thing with bikes is you can spend Subaru money for a Bentley ride... if you know where to look.
Wednesday is night ride night at the shop. It turned out I had to ride my mountain bike the 50 minutes or so to and from work and lead the ride. The 34 X 17 felt really light on the way in and way too steep in the woods for my unconditioned legs. The 1.8 XDX Tires I'm using to commute on combined with the big gear and the leaves clogging the trails meant I was doing a lot of running. They no hook up so good under that much torque.
Commuting on the mountain bike is slower but so much more fun. It really opens up the world, it makes what can normally be shear drudgery fun time.
"Just heard back from Fisher and you are definitely on the team. Congratulations!"
"Hey Thom, You're in. Looks like additional info will be given after the holidays."
What I'm talking about here is something which I've alluded to in previous posts or shared with a few friends. Didn't want to share it with the world (of three people reading this thing) until it was officially official. Just talking about this:
I can dig it.
Before I go on to yammer about a couple other things I want to say how stoked I am to ride for Fisher in an official capacity. I've been riding Fishers for two years now, last year the shop helped me out with a Fisher Rig, but the year before I had picked up a Rig because that's what I wanted to ride.
After riding mountain bikes seriously for well over a decade I have learned that the geometry of a bicycle frame has much more to do with the way a bike feels than the materials it is made out of or the price tag that hangs off it on the showroom floor. Fisher has the geometry dialed and the price is right.
Position foot in close proximity to mouth and prepare to insert...
So everyone and their Grandmother has a small frame building shop these days. Some companies or builders stand out but for the most part you've got guys slapping together steel and titanium tubes (or gluing hunks of carbon they got from god knows where into them) in a very similar fashion. It comes down to how nice the paint job is to differentiate one from another.
People pay crazy money for these frames. I built my Rig up last year with full Bontrager Race X Lite stuff for less than it would have cost to get a frame from a custom builder. It was the best bike I've ever owned. Honestly I didn't even like the color. My nephew won't eat off a plate with a picture of the The Little Mermaid on it. Does it effect the way the food tastes? No, of course not, this is insane, but he's five so he's excused. I'm sort of an adult so I understand that the color of my bike has nothing to do with how it rides. I'm looking ten feet ahead of me, not down at my top tube.
Full disclosure. Yes the bike broke. Bikes break, it's part of riding bikes. I've seen countless custom frames break, often in frightening ways. I've seen people wait months and months to get their repaired frames back. I've waited six months myself, it's no fun. Wanna know how long I waited to get my warrantied Fisher back? Less than a week. They even upgraded me to a Ferrous
for no charge and offered to paint it any color I wanted. I liked the stock color, so that's what I asked for.
Not everyone can afford to buy a hand built car, most people can't, People like Michael Ball drive hand built cars, people like me drive Subarus. The thing with bikes is you can spend Subaru money for a Bentley ride... if you know where to look.
Wednesday is night ride night at the shop. It turned out I had to ride my mountain bike the 50 minutes or so to and from work and lead the ride. The 34 X 17 felt really light on the way in and way too steep in the woods for my unconditioned legs. The 1.8 XDX Tires I'm using to commute on combined with the big gear and the leaves clogging the trails meant I was doing a lot of running. They no hook up so good under that much torque.
Commuting on the mountain bike is slower but so much more fun. It really opens up the world, it makes what can normally be shear drudgery fun time.
In Ice Weasels News, Jon Lewis from Saris/CycleOps has agreed to host a trainer dance party in the white barn at White Barn Farm for folks to warm up during the race.It is also rumored that a guy with the nickname "The Shark" is not attending Nationals so that he can attend The Ice Weasels race. The latter part is more truer than the first part.
10 comments:
You da man! You've earned this. Congrats.
Have you ever eaten off a Little Mermaid plate? The food does indeed taste girly off such.
Congratulations on your ride.
That is awesome!
You going to use gears now?
Congrats pt.2
I like the pink background.
Great news, Thom!
Cool to have you on the team, congrats! It's a great group.
Tim
awesome. congrats!
Oh man, we're screwed! Nothing like battling the climbs and team tactics. You, Mike, Freye, Perley?! Frig it, I'm racing road.
Nice! That superfly looks really super! Guys at the starting line will look over at your name on your bike and say "oh shit it's Parsons!"
Love the blog
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