But, after some soul-searching and figuring, I considered selling off my Black Cat frame to fund a purchase of the Jones steel diamond frame. On one hand, the Black Cat is made by hand, one at a time in Santa Cruz California by one guy, and on the other, the “new” ready made Jones frames are made by a group of Thai frame builders (by hand) on another continent. The Jones frame incorporates a Bushnell eccentric bottom bracket insert (which I do like very much for SS tensioning) whereas the Black Cat uses the proprietary swinging dropouts designed by Todd Ingermanson (Black Cat builder himself). The Jones frame does one-up the Cat for ability to run fata$$ tires, but requires a 135mm hub on the std rigid fork….unless I go with the Ti truss fork upgrade (quite sexy really), but the Cat is suspension corrected for a 100mm squish fork, should I choose to run one. Such a quandary! Now for another twist, consider the second blog I did back in 2008:
http://joeldirt.blogspot.com/2008/09/my-dream-bik.html
now, compare the frame design:
Both are very similar in design actually (as the photo above shows), but ultimately, although I have lusted for so long for the Jones frame, I cannot escape the connection of fate that drew me to the Black Cat….For the fact that NaHBS was held in our home town this past February, and that I volunteered my time for the event, gaining free entry to the show, and getting a chance to talk personally with Todd, then by chance finding out that the lonely lime green frame in the corner (see here) was in fact for sale, and happened to be just my size. Not to forget that this Black Cat frame is unlike any other, custom built, not for me, but someone just like me, but it is unique; whereas the production Jones frame will be just like another one, which may be showing on a trail near you.
You make think from the run-on sentences above that I may have made up my mind, but to quote Morpheus from The Matrix: "Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony."
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