The final piece of the puzzle...

that I didn't know I needed to solve.

I've been struggling with the back and forth of embracing the new (to me) world of geometry for whatever my bikes are called today.  Down country?  Technical XC?  Trail bike?  Marketing babble speak dogfish?

It was the Specialized Epic EVO that I didn't know I wanted but bought just because I could that forced me to at least give it a try.  No more traditional 70°+ HTA or 72.5° STA (head pipe angle and seat pipe angle).  Now it's  66.5° and 74°+ and obviously a longer effective reach, front center, and all that jazz.  I feel like I'd always been slightly ahead of the game on the short stems tho, running 70mm when everyone else was stretching out on 90-110mm, and then dropping down to a stubby 50mm years ago.  

When I started talking to Tom at Vassago about getting a Radimus (because I was going full-in on long, low, slack... unggh), I think he mentioned something about me being on a small with a 30-35mm stem.  I ignored him... mostly because I had zero stems in that length and a plethora of 50mm stems.

When I want the stems, I take the stems.

So trying to be cheap while still trying to get the bike set up proper-like for me, I did what I had to do.

Which was a fine stop gap, but when my Oddity Lowrizer bars arrived... it was obvious that I'd solved half the problem... but it was also apparent I needed a shorter stem... and Industry Nine was/is still working on a 42 day wait time... so I just bought something that was in stock from a non-sponsor correct brand... because I had to know.

At that point, the Radimus became the funnest bike I currently own.

Not taking anything away from the Epic EVO, but it wasn't as "fun." anymore, relatively speaking.  With very similar geometry, a 140mm fork, and a CushCore-aided low pressure tire in the rear, the Vassago was just... happier.

*sigh*

*orders new stem for Epic EVO*

Now I'm going to monkey around with bar widths and rises and see what I can get outta the Epic performance-wise (for me)... and by "performance," I really mean joy.  I'm also going to stop staring at the pile of money bolted onto the plastic frame with so many moving parts thinking about how much fun it would be to mount all those bits up to a Vassago Optimus (I'd just need a headset)... and take the extra money from selling the frame/shifty bits and dumping it into an AXS group that I could easily swap on and off that bike... and mebbe a Boost ENVE turgid crabon fork (or Whisky cuz they all got warts now) too... because?

Burrito, obvs.

Since you can't buy the non-S Works version of the Epic EVO frame (without components), someone would want it... and yeth, owning three titanium single speeds would be dumb, but...  I think.  Mebbe?

I was recently reminded that now is not the time to make rash bike consumer decisions (it hasn't been for almost two years tho).  The bike may represent a virtual pile of money, but once converted into actual greenstuffs, turning that pile back into a bike may not be so easy.

I chatted with Tom, and asked him about all this.  I'd end up with a VERY similar bike with slightly less travel and lower weight and the turgid compatibility... and that's about it.  

*more sighs*

FWIW: Despite my internal struggle of trying to mold my bike cycles into the perfect form, I'm in a generally good mood.  I'm not sure if flipping the calendar to the new year has lifted some kind of dark shadow, or mebbe starting to put things on the schedule for '22 is the reason for my brighter outlook, but I think I'm better off not looking the positive outlook horse in the mouth.  

Oh, and hey.  Who's looking forward to yet another three day weekend of shite weather and has three thumbs?

Not me.