Goodbye Orbea - Hello Niner

I bought a used Orbea 29'er frame in 2008 just to try out the whole 29'er thing. It was a hard-tail Lanza. Turns out I would up consistently choosing to ride the Orbea instead of my full-suspension Ellsworth for all races, even Burnin' at the Bluffs and the BT Epic.

So even though I didn't do nearly as well as I'd hoped in the BT Epic, I survived it and loved the 29'er hardtail feel. Thanks to TK, Ghisallo is getting it's team members killer deals on Niners. So I had to upgrade and bought a Niner Air9! Fortunately, all components from the Orbea except the seatpost fit the Niner.

I took the Niner out on its first ride yesterday in Castlewood with John Peiffer and needless to say, I'm thrilled with the Niner!


I really wanted the frame in orange but they stopped making the Air9 in that color in 2009. I thought about looking for a 2008 but they also increased the rear wheel clearance on the 2009s so I had to stick with a 2009. (The Orbea had very little clearance and riding in mud was an issue.) So I went with the "Atomic Blue" color. I love the color but am not thrilled about one aspect of the color - it glows in the dark! Yep, it literally glows in the dark.

What the heck..

You know, I've been building Web sites for over 10 years and have never had a personal blog. So, what the heck, I may as well give it a try. I can't promise any highly intellectual thoughts or muses. Can't even promise it'll be entertaining or that I'll use proper syntax, grammar, or spelling.

It's MLK day so I'm sitting in the office trying to get caught up on things around the house. It's also 26 degrees out. The road ride I had planned for the day is scrapped, so I'll probably head down to castlewood for an hour or so. It's supposed to be a rest day, but on a sunny day off work it's hard not to ride!