monkey gots new shoes

I've neglected the monkey for some time. A couple of years ago I decided I needed to add a mountain bike to the stable that actually had gears due to a back injury. Enter the Salsa Mamasita, the past couple of upgrades have been in her direction and before I knew it the Mamasita became the lightest mountain bike in the bike room. Light bike that pedals up the mountain easier, sadly it became the bike I grabbed on a regular basis. The longer I rode it the more I passed by the monkey.

This year I've decided the monkey is due for a facelift. I needed to return it to it's old badass self. First upgrade was a new fancy Reba upfront. Yeah you can say I'm getting soft if you want but while the squish makes it easier to make my way through rock gardens it also allows me to go faster through rock gardens and downhill and that's what it's all about right?

Secondly I upgraded the cockpit, well actually just the handlebar is new. I added some Easton carbon to the mix. A new stem and grips are on the list.

Last but definitely not least was a pair of new shoes. The monkey has been running the same old worn out wheels since day one. A set of Salsa Delgados with XT hubs. Good wheels but they were ready for retirement. After upgrading the mamasita to tubeless I've really been wanting to do the same with the monkey. Melinda decided one a day a couple of weeks ago that since my birthday was just around the corner it was a good time to go ahead and purchase that set of C29SSMAX wheels I've been eyeing for sometime. Yeah tubeless! Since I had tubeless wheels I had to go out and pick up a set of tubeless tires right? I found out that there are not a whole lot of options out there in the way of 29" tubeless tires. I tried the ghetto version of tubeless but I'll save that for another blog post. I've had good luck with the Bontrager Jones ACX so why not.

I've actually had the wheelset for a couple of weeks but Melinda said I couldn't use them till April 1st. I think she finally grew tired of seeing the clutter of an extra set of tires and wheels sitting in the bike room floor so Tuesday evening she gave me the green light to go ahead and put them on. Now the bike room floor is all neat and tidy.

One last thing, last year I bought a new set of pink bottle cages in an effort to give the monkey a new look without really spending any $$$ but I finally realized the pink cages just weren't doing it any favors. They just stuck out like a sore thumb so off they came and into the parts bin they went. The monkey just looks better dressed up in all black.

The Man in Black would be proud.