You are looking at a 1993 Nishiki Evolution, and it's a vintage steel mountain bike nerd's wet dream...
 You are looking at a 1993 Specialized S-Works Carbon, and it is maybe the most enjoyable single speed I've ever built.
 You are looking at a Chromag Wideangle, a bike I do not own, but I feel is somehow related to the Surface I do own...
We're going bike to bike to bike this time. 1. Rocky Mountain Blizzard 20th Anniversary Edition. I bought this frame from the owner of Redbike, which he bought because it was cool even though he knew it wouldn't fit him. I built it as a singlespeed at first with a Sycip fork and ENO hub. I had to file the crap out of a disc adapter to make that fork work - I still can't figure out what was wrong with it. This second iteration had all the parts from my Rocky Altitude 29er that would work, plus some XTR wheels and that excellent Manitou Minute fork. Something I noticed recently about the singlespeed version of this Blizzard; I had a titanium Titec Flat Tracker bar on it. I do not own this bar anymore. How do I not have this bar anymore? The best bar I currently have is a steel Flat Tracker, and the only bar better than it is the Ti version. HOW THE HELL DID I GET RID OF THIS!!?? This is honestly the most distressing thing that past me has ever done. I can't understand it at all. Anyhow. One day someone stole the Blizzard, a crummy Specialized FSR with only one brake on it, a crappy laptop that didn't have a battery (they didn't take the power cord), and a bunch of beer out of my garage. The replacement for it was the next bike above... 2. Kona Explosif. Man did I ever like this bike. Reynolds 520 steel, flat orange paint, 27.5 wheels, graphics from 1994 - it had it all. And I tricked it out with a Chromag stem and 800mm bar. It was a blast to ride.
Then it got stolen from my garage. They didn't take any beer this time. Amazingly, the Edmonton Police recovered this bike, and then my brother was able to pick it up, and then a friend happened to be coming out here, so I got it back two years after it was stolen. The front brake caliper was gone, as was half the disc mount, so I had to get a new fork as well as a front brake. And I didn't notice until I took this pic that the headtube badge was way off center and upside down. Once I got it all sorted out, I sold it. Because what the hell was I doing anyway? 3. Devinci Kobain. After the Kona I picked up this very nifty Devinci Kobain. It was a 'plus' bike, running fat 27.5 tires - sort of a fatbike lite. You could also run regular 29er wheels on it instead of the 27.5 x 2.6 it came with. I just liked it because it was a new bike that looked like an old bike. It had a great ride though - just rolled right through every trail obstacle. It was one of the bikes I brought out here from Edmonton, and then I sold it. Because of course I did. |
