Kahuna!!!!!

Monday after work I got extra special permission to go for a quick ride.  On the drive over I was a mess of emotions. 

First, I was happy.

 Then, I was sad. 

Then I was giddy!

What was causing this emotional roller coaster?  Well, it’s possible it was this svelte little vixen.

That’s right boy and girl (I’ve lowered my expectations for blog readership drastically) the long awaited delivery of my 2012 race steed, the Kona King Kahuna, had arrived.   

When I first ordered the bike, I had plans to swap a bunch of parts like the house brand bar, stem, seat post, the x7 bits and the wheels but after much introspection and some discussions with team manager extraordinaire, Big Gay (probably not because he’s married although it could be a marriage of convenience) Al, I decided that it wasn’t worth the hundreds of dollars it would take to get marginal (if any) performance improvements and the tiny weight improvement.  Instead, I’m keeping her pretty much as is and saving my pennies for the swank wheel build I’ve been planning.  Years ago I swore off carbon in mountain bikes so it now makes perfect sense that I’d have a full carbon bike with carbon wheels on the way.  Yeah, perfect sense.  I should run for office.

(carver rim photo)

My first ride was to be a short one, basically just enough to start dialing in the fit.  I’ll get into all of that later but first, my initial ride impressions.  1. The bike feels pretty light.  I don’t know the actual weight because I’m not a weight weenie but it felt light enough for me.  2. The front end with the tapered head tube and thru-axle was STIFF and I loved it.  I’ve been told in the past that a thru-axle is the way to go but I poo-pood it because it seemed like too much of a pain in the ass for race day but it looks like I’ll be eating my poo and happily running TA.  3.  I have a hard time lofting the rear wheel over logs.  I’m sure this is just a timing thing that I need to work out with the bike but it was an odd feeling.  4.  I was too much of a weenie to really push things on my first ride on my new beloved lest I fall and scratch her.