Friday, June 11, 2010

"Your Mission"

It all started with this...
I have been on the search for a new mountain bike for some time now. My old one (which I've had since I was 13, A Raleigh something that is 15 yrs old now) just isn't cut out for the job anymore. And after looking and looking and testing and looking, I was introduced to one little piece of equipment. And it has been on my brain for the past week since I discovered it.The Diamondback Mission. My self proclaimed to be new bike (if and when I can afford one of course). Now I'm not really sure which one I want to get, this one pictured below, however would be the ultimate of them. The bran spankin new 2010 Diamondback Mission 4, retailing for $4,999 and on sale at various slightly better deals. And as for right now, this bike is entirely outta my dreams...I think. I do have many choices to choose from with the missions, depending on the spec on a bike I wanna go with. They first came out in 2007 and set a new standard for the all mountain bike community. The 2009s and 2010s in the models 3 & 4 come equip with a new type of transmission. TruVativ's amazing HammerSchmidt, which is being described as an, "internally geared crankset for flawless shifting and unparalleled clearance out on the trail." This little detail is very alluring and sounds like a revelation, but it also knocks the price of the Mission up about $1000...YIKES!

So I think to myself, do I really need it. I remind myself that this will be my bike for the next 20-ish years, so whatever I do I gotta be happy with it. I have found a very nicely priced 2008 Mission 1 for a very nice price. I have also found a 2008 Mission 3 retailing at the same price as a 2009 mission 1. The main difference between the '08s and '09s is the fork in the bikes. The biggest difference between the years and models is the amount of travel (how much up and down the shocks move). I loved the way the '09 Mission 1's shocks felt, so its hard to determine if the '08s would perform just as good.


<--- '08 Mission 1 - RockShocks Tora 130mm travel <--- '08 Mission 3 - Rock Shox Pike 140mm travel <--- '09 Mission 1 - Fox Vanilla R 140mm travel So all in all it gets a little frustrating trying to decide exactly what it is I want in a bike. As a friend of mine who works at The Bike Shop here in GJ told me when I tried the '09 Mission 1 for the first time, its really all about how it feels between the legs. And with that advise, my choice of many narrowed to only one. With all this on my mind and instead of little $ $ signs showing in my eyes, the Mission is there. Which for whatever inspiring reasons made me want to make something out of it. I guess probably because I am idolizing the Mission right now. And to top off my wanting to go ride, my friend/coworker Julie always posts about all the cool places she rides and how much fun it is (check out her adventures if here: http://jewelsgj.blogspot.com/)
...those two ingredients thrown in a pot made me wanna stir up something good!

©nolasvoboda•accidentalartist
©nolasvoboda•accidentalartist
Without any hesitation, I got down to making a poster!I started with the bike...made it cool. Gathered the pics...made em cool. Threw em all together and tweeked em a bunch to finalize em...made em cool! and Voila!
©nolasvoboda•accidentalartist

1 comment:

Jewels said...

I love my poster. And that Mission bike is super cool too! Love the dual suspension, the disc brakes, the fox fork...that fork makes a HUGE difference. When I switched from whatever I had before to the Fox, the drops became so much smoother. Now instead of dropping something and rattling, I drop and there's just a "ka-chunk" and I move on down the road...remember though, you can always get 1 that's a little used (mine was a year old when I got it) and then build it into what you really want over time.