Ahhhh...that new bike smell...

[MOTO13]

Is there anything better than picking out a new bike, finding out it is REALLY hard to find...after about a dozen calls, finally finding one several states away...and then having it finally arrive at your house??!!! Well, I really like the Husqvarna bikes, but they are sold exclusively by Husky motorcycle dealers. I wanted an HC7...and Sunday it showed up. Makes me happy. And no, I did not leave the orange pedals on. They were all I could find on Sunday. Found a black set I had bought last year and swapped them out.

 

[jimbob]

Congrats on the new bike! It makes it all the more special when you have to work for it.

I'm just jealous of the size if your garage. I wish we had that much space in the UK!

 

[The Hodge]

Bike sniffing eh ??
Never thought about it when it was new ..and to be fair dont want to try it now as after a lot of my rides its covered in sheep shit ..
Congrats ..hope you enjoy it .

 

[lightning]

Looks lovely.

Wait for the feeling of horror, when you are descending a trail and your frame gets twatted by a stone. Happened on my Kona and nobody can get the paint colour, even Kona can't help.

Touch up paint no longer supplied by Kona U.K. due to "health and safety"

Perhaps they though we would all be sat there snorting paint fumes out of the touch up stick

 

[MOTO13]

Thanks guys. The bike rides great. As for rock hits, I covered the downtube in 3 layers of clear tape to protect it as much as possible. I do this to all my bikes. Around the mid west here, there is very little as far as rock hits from the single tracks since it's mostly woods riding. I've never really experienced a problem...but ya never know.

 

[lightning]

Sounds like the perfect riding climate.

 

[steve_sordy]

...................

Touch up paint no longer supplied by Kona U.K. due to "health and safety"

Perhaps they though we would all be sat there snorting paint fumes out of the touch up stick

? I'm almost 100% certain that the reason is because paint qualifies as a hazardous substance for transport (along with batteries and pressurised containers and all sorts of stuff). This does not make it impossible to transport, just more expensive. This gives a reason for those companies with a less than 100% commitment to customer service to just not do it and claim "Health & Safety" ?

Other companies manage it! For example, every Halfords store (a motor factor) in the UK has a whole aisle dedicated to touch up paints of various sizes for what looks like every global car company selling in the UK.

If only bike companies would choose from the palette of colours used by car companies, we would never have a problem matching up. For example, German brand Focus used French Peugot's "Aegean Blue Metallic" for one of their Jam2 models. Whether this was on purpose or not, it is a perfect match.

 

[Mteam]

Blimey, if I touched up every chip and scratch on my bikes paintwork as it happened id be spending more time touching it up than riding it.

 

[MOTO13]

I can say with 100% certainty that I have never had a problem with paint chips. My Trek is over 1 year old and literally I have zero paint chips. Not even a scratch in the paint...anywhere. Where are you guys riding...rock quarries??? I must be spoiled with the woods riding. Just never get any damage at all unless you dump the bike. .

 

[Mteam]

I can say with 100% certainty that I have never had a problem with paint chips. My Trek is over 1 year old and literally I have zero paint chips. Not even a scratch in the paint...anywhere. Where are you guys riding...rock quarries??? I must be spoiled with the woods riding. Just never get any damage at all unless you dump the bike. .

Riding in places with lots of loose rocks, need shin pads to stop the rocks bashing my shins.

 

[The Hodge]

Yeah ..quite a few of our rides involve rock gardens ..ive quite a few knocks / chips ..does it bother me ?
Nope ..battle scars ..

 

[Jimbo Vills]

Awesome bikes. Always jealous of a man with that many trickle chargers ?

 

[MOTO13]

I have knee pads and shin guards that have never been used. I am thinking I am missing a lot of fun. A rock garden where I ride is like 50" of rocks in the trail. At John Muir trails, there is a fair amount of rock garden, but nothing like what you guys must ride. Very sporadic.

 

[Mteam]

I have knee pads and shin guards that have never been used. I am thinking I am missing a lot of fun. A rock garden where I ride is like 50" of rocks in the trail. At John Muir trails, there is a fair amount of rock garden, but nothing like what you guys must ride. Very sporadic.

There's a lot of this kind of thing, just loads of rocks, some big, some small.

 

[MOTO13]

Oh wow...now those are rocks. Looks like fun. Now I see why you guys get paint chips. Cool pic BTW.

 

[Mteam]

Oh wow...now those are rocks. Looks like fun. Now I see why you guys get paint chips. Cool pic BTW.

Its not me, just the first thing that came up on a Google image search for one of the trails near me

 

[MOTO13]

Where do you ride? Friggin trail looks epic.

 

[Mteam]

Where do you ride? Friggin trail looks epic.

That pic makes it looks much better than it really is....

I live on the edge of the peak district in the uk, the (official) trails are mostly old roman roads, so very straight and very rocky. That pic above is of a section of trail known as the beast, its just very rocky, but not especially difficult.

Peak District Mountain Bike Routes – pedalnorth

pedalnorth.com

 

[MOTO13]

That many rocks still looks awesome though. I am kind of lucky...within 30 minutes of where I live I must have 8-9 places I can ride. All woods...all single track. My main riding place is literally 6 minutes from my house.