Friday, November 25, 2011

Dream Machine-Turner DHR.

Oh jeeze...where do I start when it comes to this shapley piece of alumnium.
I don't know when or where the first time I saw a DHR was but it was probably one of the first couple of times I visited my yearly friend the Sea Otter Classic.There was something about that bike,maybe it was the yellow powder coat job,the twin top tubes,or the red spring on the Romic.Maybe it was the fact I was 13 and really wanted off of my Giant Warp DS1 and onto an 8'' travel wonder bike with a chain guide and dual crown fork.At any rate,I fell in love...little did I know that love would follow me for roughly a decade.

After I got my first so-called wonder bike (2001 Cannondale Gemini) I started getting the itch to go race these squishy machines.I raced for a few seasons and it wasn't until about the second or third year of racing  I noticed something.An evolution of my lover from years past.Gone were her twin top tubes,a beautiful vinyl sticker kit covered her from headtube to dropout,and that red spring was replaced with a remote piggyback-ed Fox shock.I was swept off my feet once again.I fell out of the MTB scene shortly after that encounter,racing and 26'' wheels in general were at the back of my brain.

I returned to adult sized wheels towards the end of the 2000's.I was racing again,and was loving it.I bought a few different frames from a few different companies,that was untill I decided I really wanted to try racing.Different states,travel,friends,new places.The whole bit.I pulled the trigger on my first ever,money was no object,100% new parts,no substitutions bike.At the time my friend was riding a DHR in the last incarnation I saw her in and he loved it.That inspired me to pull the trigger on a DHR as the center piece of this build.Whilst scouring the interwebs,I saw her.She'd lost quite a bit of weight,gained some curves and stole my heart again.This time around she'd lost the chunky square tubes and replaced them with thin,round ones.The head to toe moto inspired graphic kit was ditched,replaced with a subtle nearly transparent top tube sticker.The remote piggy back was gone,switched out for the standard piggy backed Fox DHX that was tucked nicley away in the frame.She had to be mine.A phone call to Turner,a smaller than I thought sum of money,and a few weeks later I had her all to myself.We spent plenty of time together.Sea Otter,a season of Northstar along with every race they had to offer,my first out of state race,and countless hours on the home trails.The both of us loved every minute of it.

But,every good thing has to come to an end at somepoint.I sold her smokey grey goodness at the end of that season to a kid in the Bay Area.It was a sad day,but new bikes,riding what your shop sells,and a never ending lust for bicycles masked that.I spent the next two seasons on a World Championship adorned French flyer.The whole time I was on said Frenchy,I couldn't help but notice that once again my lifelong lover was undergoing changes.This time it was big.She kept the round tubes,bailed out on the ever-lovely TNT suspension layout and went DW,and made herself longer,lower and lighter.She became the apple of everyone's eye at this point.

I've thrown a leg or 5 over my lady in her latest look and although the feel isn't exactly what it used to be and she's a spendy little cuss I can't help but still want her between my legs,getting sideways and shooting roost.It's not gonna happen this year,as I already have my lady of the season planned out...and boy howdy she's a looker.Right up there with my girl the DHR.

One day dream machine,one day...

The first version of my love.Circa 2001.





Round 2.Circa 2004



Round 3.Circa 2008.


Round 4.Current look.Circa 2011


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