Tony I just ordered some bits and pieces for the mountain bike I got from a coworker. He's a higherup guy, we get along well and work together a lot. Only a few years older than me, but he's an accomplished cyclocross / road / mtb biker. He races, he's been sponsored, that sorta guy. Garage full of carbon fiber. One day 4 or 5 months ago, I was telling him this daydream I had of taking an aluminum framed 90's era mountain bike that has some rack mounting points on it (these became intensely uncool in the mid-90s and have only recently begun to be hip again), putting a better front shock on it, and disc brakes at least up front, possibly front and rear. I wanted to make a very lightweight bike I could bike pack on, commute on, and go hit the trails around here too. He grinned and said he had this late 90's GaRY Fisher in his garage he wanted to get rid of, and that he'd bring it in sometime.
Months passed. I didn't pester him about it. Then one day 2 weeks ago, this Fisher Mt Tam appeared in the lobby where we all park our bikes. It had no pedals on the cranks. It had an upgraded Marzocchi shock, and had been converted to disc brakes front and rear with braded steel lines and GOOD components. It had a carbon fiber handlbar... expensive german race tires. "This HAS to be his bike" I thought. But I couldn't find him. Went home for lunch, grabbed a spare set of pedals and a wrench, came back, popped them on, adjusted the seat down, and was HOOKED. It's so, so light. Turns out yes, that was his bike, and yes he wanted me to do exactly what I did. "Just take it home, we'll figure a price you can't refuse next week." At some point, he's got to tell me what I owe him, but so far nada.
Meanwhile I ordered a VO Postino handlebar with some nice sweep to it, and a rear rack that works with discs, and a Axiom Barkeep 9 front bar bag. Those bar bags were what was on the rental bikes we used to cover the 350-ish miles out in east Oregon a few months back, and I was absolutely smitten with it. It fit more than just my camera bag, plus has an insulated bottle (cough-BEER CAN-cough) holder on one side, is atiff and light, clicks off easily, and comes with a rain cover. Super excited, pics to come.