The Haro Mary SS
The mary ss has been a great bike with a few minor setbacks over the year. It’s a single speed, so the bike is inherently simple to ride and work on. The biggest flaw in that is the bb shell design. The set screws are in the exact location that rocks tend to find if you ride in technical singletrack. The wheels don’t hold up as well as one might like, so they were the first to go. Surprisingly the rear hub seemed to be a fairly well designed unit when it was taken off the bike and inspected, however the performance simply wasn’t acceptable. The frame handles aggressive urban commuting and rocky singletrack with ease. It accepts a suspension fork without problems, though seems to be more at home with the stock rigid fork. These bikes are great for taking a beating and not suffering for it. Its popularity has been growing with its reputation.
Diamond Back AscentEx
The $500 price tag is kind of a guess considering I cobbled the bike together. My first moutain bike was a 1993 Diamond Bike Ascent EX. It was neon green. It now hangs on the ceiling above my work bench. In the late 90’s I broke the rear hanger off and actually went and bought a Cannondale. One day when I was walking through the Ambridge Bike Shop I saw this blue Ascent EX frame hanging on the wall. It was $40 and included a cro-moly fork. I bought it and figred I could cobble together a decent secondary bike out of the parts from the othe Diamond Back. The end result was this ride. I still love the top mount shifters and the fact I can take this bike anywhere. When I go on a camping trip I’m never afraid to leave this ride out in the elements and therefore it ends up going on most of my trips. I’ve ridden it with 2.5 tires as well as semi slicks. The crank is awful and was one of the parts that didnt make it from the orignal ride. I never can leave home without a good supply of Lock Tight as the crank comes loose after a good hour of pedalling. Its nothing fancy but its a workhorse and gernerally performs just what I ask it to do.
Merlin MTN
I am not one to buy new bikes too often… This is my favorite bike. I have had a Merlin since 1990. This is the third one…the second warrenty frame. In the early 90’s, titanium bikes were still evolving. Designers/builders had to work with available tubes. By the mid-1990’s, bike builders were working with Ti tubing mills and getting their own custom drawn tubes, therefore 1996 frame is a big improvement from the earlier 1990 frame. Also the 1996 has suspension geometry and 1 1/8″ head tube which is nice as well. This bike has been all over the place; the Gila, the Jemez, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Mill Valley, Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Durango, Moab, Fruita, Baja (Mexico), the Copper Canyon (Mexico), Big Bear, Mammoth, Mt. Tamalpais, Topanga Canyon, the Andes mountains (Venezuela),…The list goes on and on. This bike has eyelets on the 6/4 titanium alloy dropouts. Makes a bomber touring bike with a front and rear rack mounted. In November 2006, I converted the Merlin to a single speed. It has turned into a real project of trying to make the bike as light as possible. Just bought a White Industries ENO hub and 18T freewheel for it. Will update photos in the future. I use this bike to commute on and to run errands since it is somewhat less conspicuous than my other bike I have in Venezuela. I still don’t like to leave it out of sight for very long. Overall, it is a super light single speed, probably only 19 lbs or so with 2.35 Ritchey Z-Max tires. Though the frame is going on 12 years, it is still amazingly fun to ride!