(Say it aloud, you’ll get it.)
It’s Hoss-Tough!
The bike – has landed.
Two weeks ago I went into Full Cycle to try out the 2006 Hoss 20″ and I quite enjoyed it. Having never ridden on a telescoping (shock-absorbing) fork before certainly was a change I had to be careful of; I think I rode maybe 200 meters, then had them stiffen the travel.
Disc-brakes are amazing, ’nuff said. The bike is actually heavier than my ’97 Fire Mountain, but not by much – maybe a pound or two. The frame is lighter even though it’s about double the girth, but the weight is made up for in the fork. Derailleur technology doesn’t seem to have really changed any, so nothing exciting to report that.
While test-riding, I noticed this bike is geared quite low. From a standing-start, one can start climbing a respectable grade without stalling. Of course that comes with the caveat that top speed is limited, but the knobby tires (they’re huge!) are going to be a much bigger problem first.
I liked it. It was the only bike I tried and I was happy, so I ordered it. Then they told me there was no more stock on the 2006 20″… but the 2007’s are available… would I like that? Different colour, but same price.
Uhm. Okay.
12-14 days later…
2007 Kona Hoss Deluxe (20″)
I actually (re)booked a doctor’s appointment around picking up my bike tonight 🙂
And traffic made my impatience flourish.
But there it was… a bike with my name on it.
When they told me it was a different colour, I wasn’t sure what to make of the “Red”, but Phil at Full Cycle called it “Root Beer” (tho possibly just because I was sipping on a bottle of Mug Root Beer at the time…) colour. Regardless, I like it. It’s not brown, that much I’m good with.
Again I had them stiffen up the front suspension, because I bought the Deluxe model, it’s a different type of fork… air on one side and sping/coil on the other. Odd. Is this a good thing? What about imbalance?
I do recall when I was riding with Darren W. back in the late 90s, his Mazocchi Bombers were only single action, the other side was free to telescope… So this has to be better than that.
Scary fact about the air cylinder… it’s pressurized to 100PSI, apparently some shocks go up to 300PSI!! Yikes! I won’t be adjusting that any time soon.
Meow.
Got a Cateye wireless ‘Cycle Computer’ installed too. Choice was rather limited by the large diameter of the handlebars, but I wasn’t too picky about what spedometer I ended up with. The whole wireless bit seems rather intelligent, as the older, contact based units were eternal headaches to make work after one season, but as my father questioned – how far off are we from just using GPS/WASS for measurment anyway?
Finished up in the store and met up with Sean to go for a short ride. Things had taken longer than I hoped so we only had time to make it across the river and a short distance east before we had to turn back. (We did find a lonely, disconnected and disused Yagi hanging off of a phone pole… pointing at someone’s bedroom window less than 20m away. No idea why that was there.)
We tooled around on vacant lot with lots of rocks on a good slope, lots of fun and nicely facilitated by the low-gearing. I also managed to give myself an injury I haven’t experienced in almost 7 years… chain-ring bite – as seen on the back of my right leg:
“A bit like ringworm but not as bad.”
(WTF Sean?)
(WTF Sean?)
To conclude this rambling post of mine; I’m quite happy with the bike, but it need some breaking in and adjustment. My knees get sore, so that’s something new to contend with. Have to figure out my helmet situation (my newer Bell helmet’s pads all de-glued themselves…?) and get a bell on there because I don’t believe it’s road-legal without one. Lights are another consideration… and since I’m starting late in the season, and likely late in the day, that may rapidly become a non-option as well. I’ll snap some more photos in the coming days… at present the bike will reside in the back of my car for a lack of any more secure location.
Thankfully that’s no burden.
“Bite my shiney metal ass!”
— Bender
— Bender