You know that saying it’s either all or nothing? Well, in the last 3 days it has went from nothing to ALL. All of a sudden there is a new clicking sound toward the back end wheel of my beloved Subaru, my daughter need 1st and last for college housing, my refrigerator kicked the bucket and, luckily, I had to bring my bike into Rich & Rob at Avalanche Sports because my boyfriend funked up my brakes before our ride on Sunday. Yes, I said luckily.
There are two reasons I said luckily. The first reason is my brakes needed replaced anyway, so out of guilt, my generous man paid for the brake repair 🙂 . The second reason is that I got to ride a Santa Cruz Bronson Carbon.
If you know me, it won’t be a big surprise to hear that I am not up on the latest fashion or iPhone. I don’t live for the newest cars to be released and I totally leave it to my man and friends to keep me up to date on the newest mountain bikes.
In fact, you will see me driving around in my (beloved) light green, slightly rusted (and now clicking) 2001 Subaru Outback with a busted Yakima rack (another story). Inside you will find my 2011 Macbook Pro and iPhone 4S (which I called a 3G the other day and my daughter laughed herself to tears).
I like my gear, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t have to be the latest and greatest.
Having said that, I was super impressed and a little bit surprised at my reaction to the Santa Cruz Bronson. The rep wanted to give me a different bike to demo, but my man stepped in and said, “No, she needs to ride the Bronson.” Then added, “It’s the hottest ride on the market right now and will change your life.” “hmph, yeah right … ” was my response. I was so wrong.
I really didn’t think about it much during the ride. At first, the front end of the bike seemed higher and a bit further from my chest and the tires were wider and chunkier. The gears were easy to find and the ride was sooth & light. We did some rocky climbs which I rolled over well, long even climbs and then rocky down hills. Half way, Jeff asked me “What do you think? Can you tell a difference?” Honestly, I hadn’t even thought about it, but did like how I was riding. The bike seemed to fit so well, I wasn’t even paying much attention to it. My heart was about to punch out of chest as we rolled Barney Flow and then we hit some switch backs that usually cause me heartburn and I weaved right through them! Maybe it was the bike or maybe it was the coaching I have received from my man or the Mountain Bike Monday ladies … I don’t know, but by the end of the ride I was pretty proud of myself.
So today, as I evaluated my financial to-do list with my dead refrigerator, clicking Subaru, daughter’s rent money and my older bike, I contemplated for about 2 minutes “It would be really fun to get that Bronson…” (hmmm)
Enjoy the Climb.