In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy!
Public Service Announcement: I am entering the final weeks of this series of posts. May 11th, 2025 will mark the start of my 20th year of blogging here on "Guitar Ted Productions". There will be a special post for this upcoming, but for now, please enjoy another look back at this topic from the days gone by on G-Ted Productions.
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| Salsa Cycles Stormchaser in its debut color and configuration |
I'm sure that if you are a seasoned cyclist there is probably a bicycle in your past which was "one that got away". A bicycle which, for whatever reasons, was one you sold, had stolen, or lost for a reason which you wish you had back again.
Now, you may be romanticizing this old memory, and in reality, maybe that bicycle is not "all that", but maybe it was great. I don't know your story, but for me "that bike" is the original Salsa Cycles Stormchaser which, ironically, was never "mine". It was a review bicycle for RidingGravel.com.
Of course, this was during the early, dark days of the pandemic, and I admit, this may have had something to do with my feelings toward the bike. The Stormchaser was my companion for many lonely gravel grinders that Spring. Rides where I was contemplating all the madness and trying to find peace for my mind and soul. The quiet Black Hawk County countryside helped with this. The Stormchaser was the vehicle which transported me there.
I did end up stuffing 50mm tires into the frame and this helped the front end be smoother and not so unforgiving. I likely would have kept the big tires on this bike with a Redshift Sports ShockStop stem and had been just fine.
But......it wasn't meant to be. Salsa Cycles wanted the bike back, and at the time, I could easily see why. Bicycles were in super-short supply. The shop I was working at couldn't get anymore new bikes, and even bicycle staples like tubes and bar tape were non-existent in warehouses all across the country. I imagine the Stormchaser I tested ended up under some customer who had ordered one which Salsa couldn't get from overseas from its supplier. So, yeah....
And it isn't as though I don't have cool, fun to ride bicycles anyway. But in another world, where there was not a pandemic induced shortage, maybe the Stormchaser would have been available to me to keep. I don't know. If this were the case, it is very likely that I would have not purchased the Twin Six Standard Rando v2 or had the Honeman Flyer built. So, maybe things worked out the way they should have anyway.
And in the end, I have memories and stories on this blog from a time I don't think we want to repeat, ever. But memories of the Stormchaser and my contemplative, peaceful 2020 rides will always bring a smile to my face. I think this is okay, and thanks to Salsa Cycles for even giving me the chance to try this out at a time when they really did not have any reason to allow me to enjoy such a bike. So again, thanks Salsa Cycles! I still am very appreciative of that opportunity.
And that's "the one that got away" story for me. What is yours?
5 comments:
Mine is a ‘13 Salsa Vaya . The bike that got me back into riding. Around ‘15-‘16 I started chasing “cool bikes” seen on Instagram and other outlets and sold it . The Vaya was capable and comfortable for all the riding I found myself doing. But QR dropouts, BB7’s, kinda upright positioning, and bar end shifters - that wasn’t getting “likes” for the people and bike shops I found cool back then.
The chase for that “Vaya experience” came full circle with a Black Mountain Cycles Mod Zero. Twelve years later and I’m finally back to that fun and comfortable feeling from my Vaya days. I’m never parting with this Mod Zero. Lesson learned.
I had a frame-up Specialized Allez I built with the local shop back in 2014. It was nearly all black with red accents, SRAM Force 22, Zipp 404s, and 3T finishing kit. MAN it was gorgeous and it fit me perfectly from day one. The very first ride I did on it was a century.
I ended up selling it around 2017 for a Giant TCR as my dumb self thought I just HAD to have a carbon frame. The TCR is a great bike (still have it), but it never quite caught the magic of that Allez.
For me, it was the 2013 Salsa El Mariachi singlespeed. A beautiful orange bike with orange components. I couldn't scrape together the cash in time to get one in my size before they were gone. I did end up getting their 2014 model in white, and which is in some ways a better bike, and which I've loved to death .... but that orange .......
Mine is the prototype fat bike I designed for On-One. They didn’t let me keep or buy it when I left the company even though there were significant changes made for the production version. It was later destroyed in a fire.
It rode exactly as I wanted. The final bike, not so much. One of the higher ups had a list of “necessary” geometry changes even before the prototype had been built up, which were made despite the testers raving about the handling of the prototype
Mine is a 1987 Schwinn Voyageur touring bike. Got it from a the bike shop manager I worked for. It was warrantied due to a broken cable guide from the shop he worked at prior. He salvaged it, put a bolt on cable guide on it and had it in his quiver. I bought it, built it up with parts salvaged from a broken Nishiki road bike while collecting Shimano Deore DX parts for it. Sold it twice to fund my Rivendell Mountain. Initially thought it was noodly to ride. Years later had thoughts on why I got rid of it and looked for one. Decided to track down the person I sold it to and got it back. Discovered that the noodly feel was loose spokes in the rear wheel. Did a rebuild on bike and it is an excellent ride.
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