They say we Americans make sometihng like 40,000,000 decisions a daily basis. Well, maybe not that many, but I swear there’s at least two commas in the figure. A lot of our decisions are meaningless, like color of underwear we grab out of the drawer or which two slices of toast we grab from the loaf. But others impact the outcome of our days, weeks, and years ahead. Today, I pondered my own personaldilemma that has been evolving and escalating over the past few months. There’s a lot of great choices out there for the said dilemma. Which fully sussed, tricked out rig I’ll soon be throwing down my hard-earned Benjamins on is no “Oh, I’ll just have mustard and heavy on the pickles” type of decision you make on the fly. There’s criteria to fill, which in this instance is 140mm-ish travel all around, the ability to be ridden hard and put away wet, and to have a solid suspension design that eats both cross country rides and all mountain epics for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And in these trying times of recession crises and budget trimming efforts everywhere, it has gotta have a “fo sho” bang for buck ratio. I’m not spending more than $4,000 and hope it’s more like $2,900. Damn, that’s a toughie.
So the contestants that have advanced to the showcase showdown are the Blur LT, the Tomac Snyper, the Ellsworth Epiphany, and the Specialized Stumpjumper FSR. A damn fine quiver of rides and I’m sure I’ll be happy with any of those as options. But I wanna be happiest. For financial consideration, I can get some “good guy” pricing on all of them BUT the Blur. I even tried the friend of the friend thing with a Santa Cruz dealer today, and it got me no where. Guess I need more friends….that, or better connected ones. I ride with folks that got ‘em all. They all seem happy. I love the VPP on the Blur, the stiffness and acceleration of the Snyper, the clean, plush ride of the Epiphany, and the well-roundedness of the Stumpy. The saga continues…..
