Some of you may have heard by now that I finally got a new mountain bike after riding the same Trek 7000 hardtail for the past 10 years. The Trek is still operational and it’s a little bittersweet looking back on all the trails I’ve ridden on that bike (more than 150 from Utah to Vermont) but I’m super stoked about my new wheels: the 2009 Redline d660.
I got a chance to demo the Redline d660 at Interbike back in September and it was by far the best 29er I had ever ridden. I had been looking for a new bike for several months and I went back and forth on the idea of getting a dual suspension XC bike or another hard tail. I also had this crazy idea that I might want to go single speed to keep things super simple and low maintenance but in the end I realized a single speed is a bit too limited for my primary rig.
Anyway, it turns out the d660 is sorta the best of both worlds since it’s a 29er and rides like a cross between a hardtail 26er and a FS 26er (though obviously closer to the hardtail than the FS). Also the gearing on the d660 is 1×9 which is basically a single speed crank with a full 9-speed cassette. The front derailleur on my old bike actually stopped working about a year ago so I was already used to staying in a 9-gear range 🙂
I’ve only been riding the Redline for about a month now but I can already tell this is just the start of a long and beautiful relationship. Since the bike came only partially assembled I got the chance to install the derailleur and brakes myself and now I baby it every time I get back from a ride (I’ll let you know how long that lasts). Yesterday I had one of my best rides yet at Yellow River where the flow on the bike felt amazing and super responsive.
Yep, 2009er is the year of the nines – 9-speeds, 29-inch wheels, and 9-lives on the trail. I can’t wait for more!
