Introducing Santa Cruz Sam

I got a new bike!  My 2-year old Santa Cruz Blur XC, "Magma", served me very well last year. I raced the heck out of it, but sometimes he felt a little small for me and I wanted to try bigger wheels.  So a month ago I started acquiring parts. First a fork.

Then the frame.

Then Drew helped me take off most of the components from Magma to put onto the new bike.
Magma was sad not to be trail ready anymore, but I think he was OK after he sat the new boy down and told him about our favorite trails over a Fat Tire.

I sold Magma's frame and fork on the online classifieds to a local dude, so I have high hopes that he'll get to ride his favorite local trails again this summer under someone shorter than me. 

I thought I had all the parts necessary for the boys at Revolution Bicycles to put the new bike (who by this time had begun to feel like "Sam") together but the headset they ordered wasn't right.  I ended up getting one from another local shop, Guthrie's, which only half worked.  Another trip back to Guthrie's and they let me have a bottom from a different bike.  Nice guys, especially considering I didn't buy the frame from them.  After 5 days of the new guy hanging like this at the shop

I finally took delivery on Wednesday.   

Santa Cruz Sam Tallboy weighs 24 lbs 8 oz and has 29-inch diameter wheels. He is my new carbon baby. 

The weather was horrible until today when we got out for our maiden voyage on the Shoreline trail.

Shoreline is an easy trail, so I couldn't get a real feel for how the bike will handle on technical and steep trails.  The geometry is very similar to the Blur, but since this frame is a size bigger than the Blur, I am sitting on it differently. Combined with the larger wheels, it feels like a very different bike. 

He sure is pretty though.