Bike Envy

I have a number of friends that are lucky enough to follow behind me and pick up my "old" and "demo" bikes that always happen to be the right size and the right price for barely used one model year old stuff. I also have a number of friends that curse me for being a couple of inches taller than they are because they see this steady flow of luxurious and spectacular bikes flow through my hands from year to year and into the hands of some grateful customer who just paid way too little for a pretty spectacular bike. I've never really thought about this latter group much until last week when Michael from Dekerf came by with his 08 race bike asking me if I would mind putting it on the floor and selling it for him. Michael is about 3 or 4 inches taller than I am and for the first time I'm looking at a really nice bike for a really good price and it's just the wrong size for me and I wish I was taller or he was shorter.



The bike is a steel 29er hard tail and is pretty much a show piece for the company so it's got a whole slew of high end bits and pieces on it as well as a slightly unique classic panel paint job.




As someone who rides motorcycles from time to time I can appreciate the inherent advantages to an inverted suspension fork when it comes to structural and torsional rigidity. The Maverick fork on this bike is a good example of how the Halson inverted suspension technology of the early/mid 90's has been improved upon in the world of forks for bicycles.




And no group of photos of a Dekerf would be complete without a shot of the trademark seat stays.




A nice touch for this frame in particular is the inclusion of an eccentric bottom bracket so the bike can easily be converted to a single speed without all the hassles of horizontal dropouts and their incompatibilities with disc brakes and wheel/flat changes.



So why is he selling it? Michael is a lot like me. He's bought "the last bike he's ever going to buy" probably going on 20 times. This bike is no exception. There's lots of super high end cutting edge technology stuff on this bike like carbon bars, carbon levered brakes, fancy inverted forks, top of the line X-O shifters. There really is no reason for him to sell this bike except that next year he'll need to have room in his storage locker for "the last bike he's ever going to buy." In the mean time someone will get a smoking deal on the last bike they will likely ever buy, as long as they are a bit taller than me which would put you in the 6'3" range. If you're that person the bike's down here at the shop if you want to take a look at it. And I wish I was just a bit taller.