Sweet Ass Bike

My feelings for the cross-check were reaffirmed Thursday. Wanted to ride some dirt, but the front tire on the 1x1 is giving me problems. Damned stan's tubless. Guess that isn't really the problem. Air is coming out of the valve stem and having trouble sealing. I think its because the shop installed a regular liner when they should have installed a Sun Rhyno Lite specific strip, which they didn't have. Love it when mechanics err, makes me not feel so bad when I screw up wrenching my own bikes.

While Tara was getting a haircut I took a ride towards downtown to meet up with her later and grab dinner at Whole Foods. Rode down Congress, dodging and passing traffic at rush hour. Definately a rush on a bike, splitting lanes and making a hell of a lot more progress than the cars. Eventually made it on the Greenbelt about dusk and that's where my love of the cross-check came to light again. For a trail where the standard is a fs rig, that thing hammers. Maybe its the steeper gear, 42x16 (versus the 34x16 or 34x14 on the 1x1 free or fixxed), but it felt like I was flying through the rock gardens and around turns. The 38c tires fit through the rocks better and bumps just feel smoother on that ride for some reason. The bigger wheels, longer wheel base, and more streched out position don't make it as quick handling as a mtn bike, but its pretty damn good. The speed is definately real slow through real technical rock gardens, but real low speed through obsticles with your peddles just barely coming around is pretty radical on a fixxie. If you ride fixed but haven't tried it on your most technical local trail, you don't know what your missing. Granted, you may think it sucks once you try it, but now you know. You also know the feeling of riding and worrying about your peddles smaking everything. But odds are is on that first ride, you'll have that small moment of clarity, where you're just hammering, your bike seeming to maintain momentum on its own, and nailing those slight cadence stalls combined with a lean that allows the peddles to somehow snake their way through the rocks clean. Then reality strikes as your peddle smacks a rock at the lowpoint as your front tire nails a tombstone. One foot unclipped swinging out wildly as you try to hold on and keep the rubber down.

And back to the cross-check. The do everything bike. I take this on road rides with buddies. Granted since its fixxed they lose me on the downhills and I usually have to catch them going up if I want to continue to ride. Off-road, not as good as a mtn bike, but a different style ride that offers variety to your everyday trail. Gravel, and all day road rides. Around town. Tours. The only thing this bike might not be great for is racing. Jack of all trades, master of none? Don't know, probably depends on whose peddling the bike. Put the right rider in the cockpit and I sure its a master of all trades.

So if your in the market for a new bike and not looking for a bike to handle a specific task. You should think about going to your lbs and look at the cross-check. Such a fun bike to ride in almost all situations your other bikes might get to feeling a little neglected.