Wow..It finally happened!

I the last 6-8 weeks, I've been brewing on single speeds. I got my road fix with my new Bianchi Roger. More recently, I've spend tons of time (ebay and craigslist) and effort (driving to view and demo) in an effort to determine which single speed mountain bike to purchase. Here are the criteria in order:

• High Cool Factor
• Not too expensive (around 1500 total dollars)
• Disc Brakes (hydraulic or cable)
• Decent Components (No crap that I have to replace)
• Not horrible color (To Be Defined)
• Not too heavy ( under 25 lbs)
• Front Suspension

I built this stupid spread sheet to try and help determine which bike would be the best given price and a build vs. buy decision. Frame cost, component cost estimate, components I would replace given a purchase, etc. Overall I have Good News/Bad News/Good News.

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Good News: Doing this helped me determine that basically buy vs build was gonna cost me about the same money, even if I purchased a cheaper frame, and built it out. FYI full bike options were either a Kona Unit or a Redline Monocog Flight. I was leaning towards the Redline since the Kona's top tube is a little too long for me. Going a frame and build out route, were quite honestly between a Surly and Voodoo Wanga, since both had removable canti bosses....The Surly came with a fork but was a little heavy. The Voodoo was a crappy color.

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Bad News: I didn't make any decisions....

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Good News: As I was doing my research, last night, I totally stumbled upon a retailer in California who was doing a closeout on one of my full build out model choices!!! Local bike shops wanted a 300 dollar non refundable deposit to get a bike for a brand they already stocked? That didn't seem right to me. In fact, this bike was one of my top choices, but I had decided it was too expensive. Anyhow, I ordered the bike online, and confirmed my order this AM. It will be here Tuesday.

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My friends Fabien and Michelle have mentioned a local mountain bike racing series, and I've decided this is gonna be my new race bike. Too bad I can't purchase some new race legs. Those would be very handy....maybe just some I could swap in mid race, perhaps?