POSTS

Good things come to those who wait

Even if that waiting is a little impatiently. So as I described here, my trusty 29'er broke two weeks ago. On Wednesday I got a call from the shop, "I've got bad news." Oh no, they're not going to warranty it. I'm never buying another Fisher again! "You're not going to have your bike in time for the race. They literally don't have any frames in the US; they're waiting on a ship from Taiwan to come in so they can get one ready for you." The race in question is the Whiskey Off-Road, which I had told them I was hoping to have the bike back in time for. He offerred to set me up with a Fat Possom, but that's not a 50 mile race friendly bike.

So I'm stuck with the Spider, except it's bearings on the one of the rear pivots went out shortly before Cloudcroft (felt like I was cornering on a flat all weekend). Under the massive pressure of my quads, I could completely flex the BB shell and move it several millimeters to the left. Ok, so that was the bearing being out, but it was still impressive looking. :) I ordered a bearing kit from Chris in Tucson so I'll be fixing that this weekend.

But I still hated to see my beautiful wheels from Dave sitting in the garage, so I've been scouring the internet looking for a deal on a frameset (or maybe frame and fork). I found a couple of great deals on Paragons, but they were all the wrong size. There was one deal on a new 292 frame/crank/bb, but the guy was asking $750 on the buy it now. He had it listed on MTBR for $700, and the bidding started at $500, so I emailed him this morning and offerred to split the difference, $600. No response... Then, just a little while ago I happened to run one more search for Fisher bikes to see what came up, and I found a used (one ride) 292 frame/crank/bb for under $400! Score! B)

Man, I'm so glad I didn't go to LA. I'd be asleep in a hotel room right now pissing away the $400 that just picked up a new 29'er frame! So now I'm hoping the seller ships tomorrow (he's in UT - which, oddly enough, is where my 293 was born and raised before I got it). That'll mean I should get it with enough time to build it up and get in a ride or so to tweak it before throwing it into Whiskey. But even if I don't have it by Whiskey, I'll have it in time for Gallup, and I know how big of a deal a 29'er is there.