Pursuing the Intense Dream

I was supposed to sell the Intense Tracer VP, but none of the negotiations pulled through. It has been a little more than a year since I put it up for sale. I figured that since no one is getting it, and it's just gathering dust in our condo's second room, I might as well carry on.

Last Saturday, I brought it to Extreme Bike Shop in Panay Avenue to finally have it assembled. I discussed the build with Liezl the night before.

I'm building an all-mountain bike - a category I'm not familiar with. With the realms of cross country, I can pretty much navigate myself with my eyes closed. With this, I would need to go with parts that are primarily strong enough to take the abuse, and then that's the only time that I think about weight. 15QR, 2.35-inch tires, 160-millimeter suspension forks - these are all foreign to me.

Upon my consultation with her, we agreed on this set-up: tapered Fox TALAS 160mm suspension fork, Chris King headset, Shimano Deore XT 2 x 10 groupset with a 36-tooth big cog, ESI grips, Fizik saddle, Crank Brothers Candy pedals, KMC chain, a pair of Kenda Nevegal 2.35-inch tires, and Easton Haven components, including the wheelset.

I brought the frame at around 9:30 in the morning, and by around 3:00 in the afternoon, the bike's all finished.

And so without further ado, I'd like to present to you my Intense Tracer VP.

IMG_6392
Jason of Extreme Bike Shop cutting the brake cable to the right size.

IMG_6396
My All Mountain baby

IMG_6394
Here she is parked in our condo's second room (pardon the mess).

Of course it didn't stop there. I had to break it in. And my friends from Batangas City took me to the boondocks to try out this baby.

At 29 pounds, it's far from lightweight, although a lot of people say that it's not bad for an all-mountain rig. Riding this bike is worlds apart from my good old KHS Alite Team hardtail. Whereas that is an efficient race machine, riding the Tracer is like riding a sofa.

Last Sunday's ride was a loop that took us up Sto. NiƱo and brought us back to the City via Haligue. Of course the boys had to stop and take a dip in a small stream along the way.

Below are some of the pictures I took:

IMG_6412
Yup, that's her -- broken in and all dusty -- just the way I like it.

IMG_6414
Here's another shot of my new baby waiting for her owner to recover.

IMG_6415
This is the stream where the boys took a dip.

IMG_6421
That's me, not yet laspag. Actually from this stream, it was all steep uphill going to Haligue.

IMG_6432
These are the boys taking a dip. The water was nice and cool -- perfect to beat the summer heat.

If you want to ride where I rode, I'm sharing my GPS reading:

Comments