The Psychological Battle of Buying a New Mountain Bike – Focus Jam Elite 29 2018
I have a tendency to purchase many things both on impulse and based on their circus freak factor. I tend to gravitate toward the lesser known something, or the model where ‘we thought we’d try something different’. I guess this may be a form of delving into the great unknown; in a materialistic first world no-one-really-cares-but-me kind of way.
The line up of possible mountain bikes to add to the stable ranged from Commencal’s Meta TR or AM, v4.2, or v3, or SX… hmmm. Oh damn YT Jeffsy or Capra (what the hell is up with their website). Oh definitely a Canyon Spectral, or Strive, hmm that Shapeshifter link sounds interesting. What value and what a user friendly website. Direct to consumer nirvana indeed. You start at the entry level bike and mind-melt your way into justifying the top model carbon feather weight flying chariot with the latest breed of Pegasus in the front and Manticore in the rear from the finest heritage Valkyrie stable recently revived by the trendiest Scandi brand something… gulp. Component charts, reviews, comparisons, foreign Youtube video reviews no subtitles, and heaven forbid -homemade excel spreadsheets. WTF HAVE I BECOME! Am I weird, is this normal, or am I just the bi-product of a wired and wireless society? I just wanted to have a good time outdoors…
After wearing myself down and doing my 97th lunchtime visit of the month to the line up of bike stores along Clarence St, Sydney, it was all too much. Atelier De Velo, was a store I frequent less due to the line up of road bikes along the wall that cost more than my car. I have time to have a poke. A total of 4 mountain bikes in the store… and what the hell is that? Focus Jam Elite 27. What is a Focus and is it meant to say 27 when the wheels are 29ers? Even more bewildering is that the 29er is in a Small frame. Larger folk may never notice, but many brands have cohesively concluded that 29ers just do not pair well with a small frame. Bringing back the notion of circus freak factor, my eyes lit up like a wallaby on a downhill trail. Let’s get the fork outta here. Or in my case, let’s get this unknown bike the fork outta here.
After a few pokey questions with the helpful team in the store and one night of unsuccessfully Google stalking this bike, the following day found me spending more than I normally would at lunchtime; and mind you I work in Barangaroo! That’s it, this unknown bike was coming home with me like a Tinder date on Valentines Day. I don’t know you, but I sure as hell will get to know you!
