4 years ago I started with a 2010 Kona Dawg Deluxe, modernized it, rode it for a year sold for a modest profit. Got a 2013 Specialized Stumpy Elite, gave it the same treatment rode for a bit over a year, sold for a solid profit. Got a 2016 Scott Genius LT 710 frame I then ordered parts for online, everything hand selected within my budget and built it myself, wheels and all. I found the Large Genius LT frame cumbersome and sluggish on my local Bay Area trails with it's 170mm front and back copious amounts of travel. So I sold the frame and bought a 2017 alloy Transition Patrol that had been chemically stripped RAAAW and had a RS Super Deluxe Select with a MegNeg air can upgrade. I got a 160mm air spring to make the 2019 Öhlins RXF36 EVO fork I had on the Genius play nice with the Patrol, and swapped the rest of the build over. It was by far and away the most capable, best feeling, efficient and most importantly fun bike I've had the privilege of owning yet . . . And then about a month and a half ago it got stolen in downtown San Francisco. Alas . . . now I am a bike nerd with no bike. I was just about to order custom decals for the frame, fork, and Race Face ARC 30 offset rims; and after installing my next move was going to be post em here and just wait for that Bike of the Day steez to come and find me. Gutted . . . That was much more then a bike, it was the culmination of 4 years of saving up, buying specific tools and teaching myself a new skillet. I took a bike with my own creation down several double blacks and did not suffer a single mechanical failure. Might have ripped the sidewalk on a Goodyear Newton ST, broken 2 spokes and shredded a set of deathgrip grips, but never a serious mechanical failure. Thinking about starting that process all over again from the bottom feels absolutely terrible. We should hang bike thieves.