Always happy to help. And ooh, those 305's look so awesome. I hope you'll let us know how you like it.

(Me, I'm trying to resist the temptation to buy a 29er mtb.)

the 305 was a no-brainer for me. it isn't just the bike thing that precipitated this, to be honest. the mister and i do a fair bit of bushwhacking backcountry MTB and snow sports, too. for that the GPS is not just a fun gadget, it is theoretically a life saver. he doesn't own a GPS unit and despite his being a dab hand with a map/compass, we had a couple good omg-wherethefuckarewe!?!! moments on our most recent backcountry trip.

also, i have 5 bikes, and this guy uses a wireless, no-sensors-necessary totally hassle-free mounting system with no setup required. what's not to love? all i have to do is buy a few spare mounting kits and i'll have telemetry on every whip in the stable. til then i can wrist mount it and still get accurate info. i defy you to find another cyclocomputer that has that ease of use.

oh and did i mention it's macintosh compatible? that was my major beef with saris; they still don't seem to have gotten on the mac bus with the powertap.

box yoooou aaaaarrree getting veeeeerrry sleeeeepy. you neeeeeeeed a 29er. gaaaaary fiiiisher....

Gary used to be my man (I had a Supercaliber back in '90 or so that's still one of my favorite bikes ever), but I'm thinking maybe Karate Monkey.

karate

MONKEY!!!!

fixed. fixed. fixed. FIXED! FIXED!

Fixed? Sheeit, I was thinking 1x8. How about we split the difference, and I go singlespeed?

dude if you go 1x8 then you have no recourse but to dress that baby up in full-blown cyclocross drag and join your local fall bog-trotting krewe, lycra and all.

bonus: 'crossers are famous for pain and beer doled out in equal measure.

see? i knew you'd come round. tho singlespeed is perfectly acceptable so long as there's mud and rocks involved.

Okay, I've been away from the bike world for awhile. What's a 29er?

heh. Triode it's the eighth wonder of the universe, a MTB with road diametre knobs, i.e. 29" phat. RAWR!

Holy crap LFR! I just bought a 25 buck Sigma, and you go and buy THAT. That's about the price of the one I want to buy for my car.

1. What the hell is a power trap?
2. How the hell did you afford the first one?

And I haven't been riding 5 miles a day like I wanted to! I've been way too busy! Waaah! Theres not enough time in the day.

Happy riding!

1. a powertap is an insanely specialised geeky device for serious bike racers looking for serious performance gains. it measures wattage, which is a pure, objective measure of fitness and performance such as heartrate and avg. speed can never be. i had one when i was putting in 20 hour weeks on the bike attempting to be a successful cat 2 roadie. i sold it when i burnt out and threw in the towel because to me it signified everything that was Not Fun about training.

2. i pay retail for NOTHING. nothing, baby. nothing. most of the collegiate racers i coach pay me in gear. that said, this shit still gets spendy.

you think a powertap is bad, the top level pros all use SRM power meters. those things are German, integrated into the crankset, and fucking insanely expensive. like, they start at $2000 retail and go up from there. almost anyone who uses them, got it from a sponsor. i dunno how SRM stays in business because of the eight or ten riders i know who have them, not one paid retail.