It has taken 10 years but I finally got my SID!

The year was 1997 and I was in my late teens and still thought anodized blue and purple parts were cool! Ok so they are still cool but only if you were riding them back then too. I was going to school in Ashland, Oregon and the old Judy SL was in need of replacement as changing cartridges out every few rides was getting old. I was a weight geek (parts wise as this guy has always been more on the hefty side for XC) and I had all the cool parts on my bike back then. But one part was missing, I wanted a lighter weight XC fork....I was riding an OCLV Carbon Fisher frame, it was sporting Syncros cranks, XTR V-brakes with Avid Levers, a SPIN composite 3 spoke front wheel just to name a few sweet bits that were on it. I'm sure there was a Panaracer Smoke and Dart combo in their Magic compound on it too even. It was a great bike!

At this time, there was a massive influx of manufacturers all trying to make front suspension that was race worthy, light and reliable. Honestly a lot of them were falling short on most fronts, but it was a great time to be around and watching it all happen. The folks at RockShox had the Judy SL, Marzocchi had the XC500, Manitou was rocking the 3, and you had players like Halson Design's inverted, V-Brake ready fork, Girvin's Vector 2 was being replaced with a Noleen Smart shock, oh it was a great time to be a consumer!

I can remember sitting in class and hearing that RockShox was coming out with a new fork and that it would be replacing the Judy as the XC race fork offering. All I knew was that it was Blue, Light and that I wanted one. I may have never been an XC racer, but I always had the parts that made my bikes happy and that made me happy too! That fall on my return from Oregon I tried to find one of these fancy Blue forks, but it would be to no avail.

By the following spring I had been bitten hard by the freeride and downhill bugs and have rarely looked back as I traded in the Carbon frame for 7" inches of rear travel and my XC lid for a full face. The evolution has been steady, but I have never forgot where I come from and there is still an XC geek inside me. Ok so I'm a parts geek in general, but it's a healthy addiction to have. But those Blue forks had always eluded me, that is until just recently.

Enter the 2007 SID World Cup in a Retro Graphics kit!


To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the SID, SRAM has mocked up a super small run of World Cups in Retro Blue with the original graphics kits. The forks have gone to select athletes and media darlings. (Somehow we fit into the latter of the mix) The sweetest part is that it's not going to be a version that we see go to production, it's simply a limited run to promote SID and the 10 years its been killing the XC race scene.

To me this thing is a piece of art that either needs to be mounted on an original Brodie Espresso or DeKerf hardtail frame or fixed on the wall as a decorative piece. Either way I have my SID and I am stoked! Tens years is a short time to wait for something that gets you excited and all giddy inside. I know that most of you can think of a thing or two from your earlier riding days that you want to own again in either original or retro form. For me it's the SID fork.


I hope that this makes a few of you get out and go for a pedal after you are done reading. Take care and enjoy the good times,