New Bike 3

The Nickel has arrived. This is the replacement for my stolen Cannondale Rize. The Nickel is new model from Santa Cruz. It's a simple single pivot rear suspension like the classic Santa Cruz Superlight, but it has an extra link in the system that slightly alters the shock rate throughout the suspension travel. Check it out here, if you want.

A nice looking bike in white, isn't it? My first choice probably would have been the color "chocolate" but none were available. I haven't had the chance to really get it out and ride it hard on a trail yet, but I've ridden it to school and back with Quinn, once to work and back, and Quinn and I got in a little bit of trail in a couple of the local parks. That's probably getting close to 10 miles. Now the weekend is here...

So far, I think the Nickel is going to be great. When I first climbed on, it seemed a little shortish in the top tube, and I briefly feared I was going to wish I'd ordered the next size up. This one is a large, and there is an extra large available, but the size chart from Santa Cruz put me squarely in the middle of the large size range. After riding it to work, mostly on roads, I began to think the shortish feeling resulted from the 90mm stem that came with bike. Although the shorter stem is clearly the norm now for "trail" and "all-mountain" machines, I really felt like I wanted just a little more weight over the front wheel. I looked around in my parts bin and found I had a Ritchey 105mm stem that would work, so made the swap. It's only a 15mm difference, but it really seems to make a big difference in how it feels. With the 105mm stem it feels perfect. The seat height is just an inch or two above the bars, which should be great for me on Michigan's trails.



Quinn made me ride it off the deck while he took pictures...