My husband, every once in a while, decides he is going to build the ultimate bike. That this will be the most baddass, high-end, lightweight thing possible, and he takes a few months to scheme and order and wrench like a madman. He surprised me, however, by announcing that his next uberbikebuild was going to be... for me.

I am completely in awe of what I just rode, and I recognize that I am a spoiled woman for this.

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What the picture doesn't show well is the pink Chris King singlespeed hub, the pink anodized Shorty Ultimate brakes, the pink spoke nipples. You can sorta see the (sparkly) pink Zipp stickers. He really went all out.

This thing is... unreal. The kitchen scale put it at 14 pounds, with pedals. It gripped onto gravel in a turn like velcro. It cut into a headwind like a knife. Every single twitch I made seemed to become forward motion. And it's tasteful pink, which is probably universally acknowledged as slightly-less garish and eye-blinding than a few of my other bikes.

When does CX season start again?

-- gnat!