Life, Lust, and Silly Puns

This time, it was Calabazas Cyclery, in San Jose. They were the closest shop that carried Cannondales, where I was originally going to go check out their CAAD9's. It was a heck of a ride, but thanks to Jasper's implanted GPS chip, we got there w/o getting lost.

When I walked in, some old guy asked if I needed any help. He didn't seem very friendly. I declined his offer and started looking around. I saw a few sleek road bikes, although the bike shop was mostly BMX or MTBs. All the road bikes were out of my range. Anyway, I decided to talk to someone. A lot of the staff were talking amongst themselves. I looked around for help, then decided to talk to the old guy again. It didn't go very well, and in addition to the fact that the staff didn't seem interested in the customer, I had a terrible first impression of the shop.

And just when we were about to leave... the old guy asked another guy in his 20's to "take over". This totally changed everything. He was really friendly, although in the beginning, he treated me as though I didn't know anything about bikes. After I started using more technical terms, he realized I actually knew something about bikes. Toward the end of the conversation, he said he was actually surprised by how much I knew about bikes :D

Well anyway, I talked to him more, and my very initial suspicions of needing a cyclocross bike were right, although I will admit I am very confused right now. So they have this Kona Jake, with decent components for $950. I don't really like Kona's style, though. They also have this old Cannondale 'cross bike with a few chrome-finish components that I don't really like for $920. Did I mention it comes with full Tiagra and a 105 RD? Awesome, I know. But the stem, seatpost, and maybe the headset will need replacing...

And those were the only two bikes they had that were in my price range. And so, we left (after Jasper asked a few questions) to Jasper's house. I did some major bike studying. Thanks to our excellent economy, I found lots of bikes withing my price range. But no, seriously, the only sub 1K '09 'cross bikes (picky, huh?) I found were the Giant TCX 2 and the Kona Jake. The Giant is overpriced for the components that come on it, although it does look nice. The Jake's components are nice, but as I said before, I don't really like their style.

Giant TCX 2 - $975


Kona Jake - $900 MSRP, $950 in Calabazas


Edit: So I was browsing Kona's website, and I saw their '05 Jake. It actually looks good, and the components are a Sora/Tiagra mix. The price? $750. Thanks a lot, economy. (Replaced a few people with the word "economy" so that I wouldn't be pointing specific fingers. Tricky, see?)


So what do I do? I haven't found any one bike that sticks out as the bike I should get. Shall I risk a Scattante from Performance? (Yes, that's the brand name.) Let's check the specs of their 'cross bike, shall we? Hm... oh yeah. FULL 105 for UNDER 1K. So what's the big deal? Here's Shimano's component group, in order from crappy to pro: 2200, Sora, Tiagra, 105, Ultegra, Dura-Ace. So yeah, I'm getting 105 components for the price that Giant charges for a Sora-Tiagra mix. Generally, low end road bikes today come with Sora. Only rarely do you see 2200 parts put in.

Scattante X-560 - $950


If only those fools are Perf. bike didn't name their bike line that, I bet they would sell many more bikes. For the value and quality, (yes, their frame quality is decent, since it's made by Fuji and rebranded) it's actually a really nice bike.

Although I'm still unsure about their name, I did see 2 Scattante's on my biking trip Saturday, and surprisingly, Bikeforums did not bash Scattante. Yes, there were some comments on its name that I agree with, but overall, most people praised it for its value and quality (for the price).

If I could buy a bike tomorrow (or this weekend, whatever) then the Scattante X-560 would be the first on my list, because of the full 105. Second on my list? I'm not sure. The only thing holding me back from the X-560 is the brand name, which yes, is a tiny thing. And maybe the $950 price tag. However, all the other bikes have multiple things holding me back, (price is one, style is generally the other) so while the X-560 didn't climb to the top of the list, we'll say it got pushed up there.



And thus concludes my extremely long post.