The Black Mamba

Completing the loop on my broken bike, all I can say is that Performance Bikes went above and beyond to rectify the situation.  

 

As a refresher, my old bike experienced a fatal malfunction on 5/14/2012, a snapped chain stay.  I texted the shop with pictures that afternoon, and dropped the bike off at the shop the following day.  The Manager of the shop, John, assured me that he would take care of the situation (just like he assured me that my weight was no issue with the carbon bike that I originally bought).  He offered me an upgrade to a better frame with a better carbon (I didn’t know that were grades of carbon) and he would transfer all my components, wheels, etc off of the old bike.  Within a week, on 5/21/2012, my new frame had arrived from the manufacturer.  But we had a new problem … it seems that the new frame has a different bottom-bracket than the old bike.  So John had to order a new bottom-bracket and crank set.  Another week, 5/29/2012, and the new parts arrived.  I swung by the shop on 5/31/2012 to check on the build progress.  The new frame was hanging on the rack and my old bike was in pieces on the ground.  And the next day, 6/1/2012, I received the call that the bike was ready to be picked up.

Some bike porn specifications for you aficionados out there (of which I am not one):

The old frame:

http://www.performancebike.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/mProductDisplayView?viewType=images&productId=1091226&catalogId=10551&storeId=10052&langId=-1&pgGrp=&itemId=

The new frame:

http://www.fujibikes.com/bike/details/altamira-102

As you can see, the new frame does not have all the fancy green lettering that shows on the website.  It is matte black on black, kinda stealthy.  It goes perfectly with my fluorescent yellow bike jersey that I wear in the dark mornings.

There she is, The Stealthy Steed.  This shot also gives you a glimpse into my ADD when it comes to the organization of my work bench at home in the garage. 

From what I have been told, said in my best Phil Liggett accent, “This frame was on the podium at the last Giro de BlahBlahBlah.”  I’m pretty certain that the frame did not have a FatGuy on top of it when it crossed the finish line.  That said, the frame alone retails for more than I paid for the entire Scattante.  I surely cannot complain.  New frame, new crankset to full 105 gruppo and a tune-up, all for $30 -the cost of some spacers and new cabling.   Pretty sweet.