Quote Originally Posted by massbikebabe
Nice ride, but I don't think a speed/weight weeny like me would love it...
Ah, but Vanilla caters to racers & weight weenies too

from
http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech/2005...erritt_vanilla

Bikes of 'Cross Nationals, part 2
The Vanilla essence
By Steve Medcroft

At Cyclocross Nationals in Providence, Rhode Island, we spied several finely made and beautiful bikes built by custom frame builders. In the first installment of this special three-part tech series, we brought you Maureen Bruno-Roy's Independent Fabrication Planet Cross. Next up, we take a look at Master's 35-39 national champion Shannon Skerritt's pearl white Vanilla Cross.

[...snip...]

Shannon's Vanilla Cross
What stands out mostly about Skerritt's 'cross bike when you first see it is how clean and simple the lines are. Built from steel, the fillet-brazed frame tubes seem to flow into each other. What Skerritt also says turns other racer's heads as much as Vanilla's aesthetics is its weight.

"I'm an assistant manager at The Bike Gallery in Portland," Skerritt says. "We sell full carbon, titanium, steel and so on. With all the marketing around more exotic materials, steel has the reputation for being a heavy, cheap material, but the reality is that my 'cross bike weighs eighteen pounds; pretty much the same as a Scandium bike I had built up with the same parts."