April 19, 2024 ~ Jacob Penick
Jacob's Stinner Carrizo
A Quick Note:
I haven't written a bike check for my own bike before, so this one will be a little different from the others on our site. Don't expect component deep dives, geometry numbers, or any real marketing here whatsoever. I just want to show you my bike. Before I begin, I want to extend a thanks to all who helped me with this project. Will, Lynn, Jackson & Landon, thank you. Aaron & Jeremy at Stinner, along with all of their compatriots, thank you. From the bottom of my heart. Rachel, thanks for convincing me to go with my gut on the color. I’m so, so happy with the result.
Cliché Avoidant. I Hope.
I'm not here to describe how fast and comfortable this bike is. It's both of those things yes, and for a lot of good reasons, but who cares? I don't find myself caring about these intangible, nebulous concepts when this bike is so much more to me than a tool. An object, yeah, but an object that's a reliable source of joy like your favorite dinner. A sweet potato casserole with some brown sugar. When you put together your sweet potato casserole, you rarely consider how this casserole will be different from others, how easy it will be to cook, or how fast you can throw it together. You just care that it tastes good.
This casserole tastes good. Easily the best casserole I've ever had.
Really, if we're doing categorical definitions, this is an endurance all-road casserole. I can ride it for 8 hours on a Sunday morning over terrible roads on my 40c tires, and I do most Sundays. But it's still gonna see a few crit races. Because why would I let the words "endurance" and "bike" influence how I ride what when?
The Various Things I've Bolted to the Frame, if You're Interested in that Sort of Thing
For one, I've gone for SRAM Apex AXS 1x. Inexpensive, simple, shifts great. Deda cockpit hides brake hoses and lets me attach my GPS, light, bar bag, Bookman ghost light charm for children & SugarBee Apples sticker. I sit on a saddle which is attached to the bicycle using a VeloOrange Gand Cru seatpost, which I think is quite fun to look at. That weird little scoop place inside the clamp looks like a cool lil place to rest if I were about half an inch tall.
Best of all, I built some wheels for myself using a few quality bits. Building wheels is my favorite part of the assembly process. I chose DT Swiss 350 hubs, DT Swiss welded aluminum RR 481 rims, and Sapim CX-Ray spokes. That are silver. Building wheels is meditative and engaging. It requires a focus on patience with the self, which is an area that I could stand to grow in. So, stretching my abilities in that department with some of the most robust wheel componentry out there really got me going.
It's Yellow
I recently found out that my favorite color is yellow. Who knew? I've been thinking about this particular shade of yellow lately. I stare at the bike at home sometimes. It's begun to remind me of the center of a daisy. Daisies have always been around, looking back to my childhood and the people who surrounded me. They were my grandmother's favorite flower. I learned a lot about how to have fun from my grandmother. She taught me about time outside spent moving and how it can set the chemicals in your brain in the right direction if they happened to be trending toward the wrong. She'd often sit me in the Little Tikes plastic wagon (see below) and shove me down the hill in back of her home. I'd ask to do it again and again and again. One of my fondest childhood memories, that is. Riding this bike isn't so different. The activity is stained with the burden of adulthood as all activities anymore are, but I haven't completely lost that sense of how to just have fun that I learned from my grandmother. I've been calling this bike Stinky, a play on Stinner, but maybe its actual name should be Daisy instead.
Thank you for reading.
