N-1/N+1 Yearly Shuffle
 

I sold my 2012 Epic Expert 29er to my brother and ordered a 2013 Epic Marathon 29er. I plan to do a lot more riding on the mtb this winter. :thumb:

I got a call from my LBS this morning. My Indy Fab bike I have in the shop on consignment should be sold today. N-1! I've pretty much cleared out the extra bikes in my stable. Now I need to sell my wife's mtb so I can get her a new one. I wonder if I should tell her about that or not? lol

It's official the Indy Fab sold! N-1!

Epic Marathon is a damn nice bike. Out of my league, even with a pro deal. Enjoy!

It's a much nicer bike than I'll ever do justice but I was able to sell 5 bikes and a truck recently so some of that money goes to the new Epic and a Quarq powermeter for the Tarmac. I'm heading out to western Colorado and Utah next spring so the Epic ought to be perfect for long doubletrack rides.

It's ok to surprise her....if you get the right color!

Marc

You are so right about that. She wouldn't know XTR from Alivio but knows that a red bike is not her style. BTW, her current mtb is red. lol I will give her this. She does check out the weight of a bike. If she considers it too heavy then it's a no go.

Good for you!! The bike I'm trying to build up (taking way too long) will be a different color than my others. So, even if I can sell one she will know there is a new/different bike in the garage. Would your LBS unload all the golf clubs I've collected the last 15 years???

Seriously, do you have some trails near your area that are "manageable"?

Another bike already? Gosh, I sold one and only have one bike now. Definitely in the minority. I guess I need to resolve this.

There is a new trail being built at WCU in Cullowhee, Tsali is 30 min away and Jackrabbit is an hour. Those would be considered intermediate trails I guess. I do lots of gravel fireroad rides. One of my favorites is Balsam Mtn Rd in Smoky Mtn NP. Parson's Branch Rd into Cade's Cove is also great though it gets quite steep in places. It's an awesome ride though when the Cove is closed to cars early Wed and Sat mornings.

So far I stay away from Pisgah though I just picked up a trail map and might search out some of the easier rides over there.

Get with it Neal, I've sold 5 bikes this summer. Oh, and a truck too!

I need you to help me launch this Klein hardtail I haven't had the courage to sell yet. That and two hybrids my daughters have ridden about 4 times each. N-3 could = some REALLY nice wheels or Di2 gruppo for the Roubaix!

Hey, I have a Di2 gruppo you could buy! What a coincidence!

Picked up the Epic Marathon this afternoon. Sweet bike! Not sure if I'll like the twist shifters or not but time will tell on that. It sure is a cleaner look with them on the bars. Bike weighed out at 23.9# with pedals. Not bad for a large 29er!

Under 24 lbs.....whew! And that's a full suspension mountain bike. Impressive. Is it a Large or XLarge? You should post a picture.

I'll post a picture after I get it out on a ride tomorrow. It's a large. I could probably ride the XL but then I'd need to shorten the stem and the bike wouldn't handle as nimble as the large.

I let my son take my Trek 8000 to school this fall, and this was my commuter bike, n-1. I've been using my carbon road bike in its place. Just out of curiosity I was looking on ebay and found a Trek 7000 from the same year with the same paint job in the same size, n+1. My 8000 was almost mint at 20+ years old, this 7000 will need some work. The only difference was that the 7000 had a slightly lower grade of components, LX vs DX, and DX was top of the line that year but I think was dropped thereafter as I never saw it again. I think I'll swap with my son at some point since he's going to eventually scrape mine up with locking it up around campus.

I didn't pay much for this one either, $125 for a full bike. Most of the junk bikes they sell on Craigslist and in the hipster nabes cost at least $200 and this was a decent bike in its time. I'll probably put slicks on it right off the bat to make it into a commuter, even though I still have the original tires and tubes from the 8000 and it wasn't used all that much. I tried commuting on knobbies but that was a big mistake. It'll cost almost as much to get it into rideable condition, about $50 for tires, 10 for tubes, about $40 for a rack, and anything else it may need.

They tend not to stay on the market too long.

Enjoy the new ride.

Hardest bike for me to sell. I just didn't ride the IF much so it needed to go. It was super sweet and my times are no better on my carbon bikes but ought to be ridden and I hope the guy that bought it wears it out.

Here's a pic from my first ride on the Epic. Lovely weather with temps in the mid 50s to upper 40s. Wow, I really like riding in those temps! The bike was great too!

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=278216

Pics?
And I await the forthcoming injury reports.:)
Opps I missed that pic. Sorry

Did the nurse in the ads come along with the bike?

Nice bike and background? Did you take a trail or a road up to that view?

Really nice looking bike. You will have to give a shakedown on Parsons Branch sometime before winter. Let me know if you decide to do it and I will join you. I need to shake the cobwebs off my mtb.

The trail is the AT which is hiking only. I road the gravel road up from Wayah Gap. The photo is from on top of Wayah Bald at the viewing tower. The climb is only 3 miles but 1200' up. Add that to the paved road part up to Wayah Gap and it would be a formidable climb. I do the climb in the afternoon when my daughter has gymnastics and I don't want to ride on the road.

We can do Parson's Branch once the leaf lookers are gone. Right now Cades Cove is a zoo. Or we can do the Balsam Mtn Rd down and up like we did before. It's a great time to ride that now as the leaves will be close to peak in the next couple weeks.