Chocolate & Vanilla

My original plans for an X-Fire were dashed by a lack of 54cm availability early in the season. The good news for me was that they had Bryan B's size and he was willing to swap his 54cm Supercross for my Specialized road frame. More on that another day, but I was now the proud owner of 2 matching Supercross frames. Initially I thought I'd build up an inexpensive "B" bike. I should have known better because when it comes to bikes, bling and grams always outweigh common sense. I could have bought some inexpensive TRP brakes, but the adjustability of the TRP Mag's was too much to pass up. I could have thrown on an old seat, but I really needed a white one. While I'm at it, I'd might as well just spring for the titanium railed version. In hindsight, I'm gonna jump on it 8-9 times per race so maybe I should have saved the $164. Handlebars and stem . . . the white look pretty sweet, might as well spend a few extra bucks and get something decent. When it was all over I was left with two bikes that were very similar, but both had their pro's and con's. My original "A" bike was all of a sudden better in some ways and lacking in some. I could have taken all of the best parts and built a "Super" bike, but I decided to go with Chocolate and Vanilla. Red crank here, FSA there; Carbon seatpost with a heavier seat here, standard seatpost with the titanium railed seat there; heavy cockpit here, light cockpit there; clinchers here, tubulars there. At the end of the build, the most obvious difference was the black wheels and stem vs. the white wheels and stem. Chocolate and Vanilla. No "A", no "B", just two sweet bikes. Maybe next year I'll get that new frame. Well, I guess two of them now. Maybe I shouldn't have given up running, matching shoes are pretty cheap in comparison. Then again, running sucks.