The hunt for a new bike

Having suffered on my bike during our 2011 Alps trip, I agreed to go back the following year on 1 condition, I had more travel.

I’m 5’1” tall, and a short 5’1” at that, so finding a bike to fit me has never been easy and now I know how great a proper fitting frame feels I knew finding a replacement for my Trance was going to be hard.  Darrel trolled the internet looking at frame dimensions; the search seemed to be taking me away from the mainstream makers who seem to have forgotten about us short people.   Orange 5’s sat at the top of my list for most of the remainder of 2011 until I fell in love.

Yeti bikes had always been priced out of my reach, but as this new bike was to be my midlife crisis bike I felt I could justify splashing out.  Darrel found it, the Yeti ASR5 it came in extra small, and was the same stand over height as the Trance but with the much needed extra travel.  And a local bike shop had one in XS, black with the pink hope brakes I’d also drooled over (hoping the seemingly bomb proof Haynes on the Trance would die so I could justify the new brakes) as a demo bike. So a cold February weekend we braved the snow to have a look.   My heart flipped as we walked into Plush Hill Cycles store to see the beauty on the bike stand in all its purposeful glory.  I sat astride her and it felt like a perfect fit, unfortunately I was unable to ride it as the snow was settling outside and we needed to get home, but I left her in the shop with the promise to return.

Darrel, showing a sensibility that he never has for himself, insisted that I didn’t get fixated on the Yeti and suggested that I went to a Demo Day at Llandegla  as Orange and Ghost (the 2 other bikes on my list) where there as well as Yeti.  Unfortunately Yeti didn’t have the XS, only a small but I was going for the ride not sizing, I knew the XS fitted perfectly, so off I went.  I couldn’t stop smiling on the Yeti, it was responsive and boy did it climb and I found myself hitting the 2 small berms on the way back faster than I’ve ever done but the bike was simply too big.  Keeping my word to Darrel I took the Orange 5 out, in 14” frame it fitted a treat and I did love it, but it wasn’t the Yeti.  My comparison is a horse riding one.  The Yeti was an Arab, flighty, nimble a little unpredictable in a nice way.  The Orange was a Cob, dependable and bomb proof I felt safe on it.  My love was confirmed... The Yeti was the bike for me.

Now, Plush Hill Cycles in Church Stretton are the best, I had a lovely afternoon demo’ing their Yeti and I was totally love, smitten and smiling.  As the bike was over my price range, Darrel had started to build up an old Santa Cruz Super 8 for me as we knew I’d not be able to afford a Yeti until after Morzine, but fate is a funny thing and this was when everything fitted together, perfectly.

It started with me returning the bike to Plush Hill and them commenting that they do sell off the demo bikes so at some point the Yeti would be for sale... it was build exactly how I’d build it, black with a hint of pink to let people know I’m a girl.  So you can imagine how excited I was, like a little kid, but it got better, as I was a ‘bird in the hand’ they were willing to sell it to me now.  So here was my dream bike discounted and within budget.  You can guess it, next week we were collecting her.