keep your guard up

...and you knocked my love. and you know that's a lie.

I had this fancy post all rigged up. It was a side by side comparison of the 2 bikes I'm thinking about right now. The formatting got wonky and I couldn't fix it nor do I have the motivation to sort it out now. So. It wasn't a total loss, though. Putting thoughts down in cyber ink made the choice clearer.

I'm gonna ride. I ain't gone cry, no.

The last trip through Coe (aboard the full squish) was a driver. What with my swellbow tendonitis being like it is- better...better and better but still nagging and since August?!- I needed the ease of the flat barred squish versus the earlier trip aboard the full rigid. The Surly NeckRomancer still looms large in my 'magination, and it will mine (oh yes), but longer tours and those with significant road sections demand a rollier wheel. This has led me to decide I will redact my current Salsa Fargo (1st generation is not sus corrected) in favor of something with potential to spring the front end.

Looking at my options as they stand, I am wavering between the next generation Fargo (with it's man sized head tube) and the Surly Ogre (with it's little baby house cat head tube). I've nit-picked my way through the specs, and I am leaning to the Ogre. It has horizontal drop outs (offering a happy multiplicity of set ups...), frame/fork is ~2 full cans of beer lighter, it's green colored, and is cheaper. I reckon having the frame bag will negate the water bottle mount issues. The Fargo would still offer more (in a rigid configuration) and I really like having bottles on the backs of the fork legs, but running a sus fork would put paid to that anyhow. And a bottle underneath the down tube is not so great.

I guess it's unimportant given that this all clown fun.