Follow-Up to Last Monday's Post / New Bike, for Real

Well that was a cliff-hanger of a post last Monday.  Long  story short, the 2013 Epic was getting long in the tooth.  The rear suspension was repairable – one more time only though, because after ten years it's hard to source parts.  The front suspension is still doing fine, which is good because it's out of parts-years and the  next "repair" will entail a new fork.  Anyway, I got it all done and was ready to rip up the trails for another few years.

However, I had a list and had one more bike to go, a Giant Anthem.  The Giant rep at Santos didn't have one handy for me to test ride, and I had more or less shelved the entire new-bike-project for a couple more years until supply lines loosened up and, perhaps, fashions in full suspension had swung away from the 6" big-hit all-mountain machines, back toward more of 4" cross-country bikes.

Anyway, after picking up the Epic from the local Specialized & Cannondale dealer (a very nice shop btw, where I test rode a C'dale Scalpel when I dropped off the 2013 Epic), on a lark I swang by the Giant dealer down the street.  What do you know, two Anthems there to test ride, in medium and large sizes so one was sure to fit.  An hour of test riding and adjusting later, I wrote a check for the medium.

Now a conundrum: how to get them both home in the back of the Mustang?  Answer: Drive back and pick up on Monday.  Good, because that gave me a chance to bring riding gear and ride the new bike through the Munson trails (description|pdf map) on the way home.

Since that initial dozen-mile trail ride I've had time to pile on another 50 or so miles of gravel.  The verdict?  It carves similarly to my old STP-200, but rolls fast on 29" wheels like the Epic.  The geometry has been tweaked over the past ten years by most manufacturers to keep the roll but get the handling back, and I measured that the chainstays are a full inch shorter on the new bike.

 Lots of other changes over this decade, 1x12 drivetrains and practical tubeless tires being the most obvious.  I had my doubts about tubeless initially, being pretty difficult to repair out on the trail.  But no, thinking back over the years and flats, nearly all of them have been those annoying little pinpricks that don't stop a ride, but that go mysteriously flat by the next day.  Tubeless + internal sealant = no more pinpricks.  As for 1x12, every single chain I've seen broken out on a trail has been from a bad downshift on the front rings.  Eliminating that source of drama can only be a good thing, especially now that the rear derailleur can make up for the gear range.  So, onward and upward.  These are truly improvements and not "sidegrades."

Now back to the 2013 Epic.  It's up for sale, and I'm going to try and move it ASAP, either to a friend or via Craigslist.  bicyclebluebook.com has its current market value at 20% of the new retail price, so I'll mark it down accordingly and get it on out of here.  The stable's getting crowded, and an un-ridden mountain bike is a sad horse.