New Bike, New Mileage

And the thought process that goes with it.

Now, I am seldom happy with my lot.

Since I've started this blog I've owned a fair few road bikes. Only ever 2 at a time but very rarely the same 2. I've had a couple of Langsters as winter bikes and 3 separate summer bikes.

Spring this year I thought I'd buck my recent trend of riding winters on a Single Speed and buy a Cross bike. I saw a nice Raleigh RX Comp on ebay and paid £400 for it. Ironically I've never ridden it with knobbly tyres on, only ever the 28mm Durano's it came with. I hope to change that this winter as I can't help but look on envious at others riding cross bikes with disks when the weather really sets in.

This Raleigh is a real mixed bag when it comes to components. Its got Dura Ace levers, ok old but still, Ultegra rear mech and SRAM cranks. Very odd but it all works well enough. Previous owner used to be a mechanic, so when stuff broke, it got replaced with whatever was laying about.

Not overly convinced by the bottom bracket mind, lots of bad reviews of those on Wiggle. They don't really seem to like getting wet, so a good winter on them might be a bit testing. I've already had to change it out once.

So that's my winter choice. Now I started off the year with a Giant TCR composite 1 as my summer bike. Now I never really fell in love with this bike, which I guess is an odd thing to say because, it's a bike, who cares but there does need to be an affection to the machine to get the best from it.

Ok, so it looks pretty cool in this image. But in fairness, it was probably always too small for me. Tell you what my biggest issue with this bike was, it's inability to live up to its promises or my expectations. Full carbon (ok, not a great weave but still) I wanted my money to provide me with lightness unequaled by aluminium. I expected too much.

My Giant was replacing my beloved Cannondale Caad 8. Still wish I'd kept the Cannondale. Honestly, side by side, weight wise, there was little difference. Both were 8kg's (ish) so instantly I was a little disappointed.

The Giant was my Barca bike, I rode it from London (well Staines) to Barcelona, in 9 wonderful days in 2014. Still it wasn't what I wanted. The frame got a nice chip on it in transit on the way home. That did it for me. Lost all interest. Still wanted my Cannondale back.

At one point I only had one bike.....The Horror! It was the Raleigh. The Raleigh felt awesome and bullet proof and sturdy. I thought it was all i'd ever need in a bike. Man was I off point. Turns out, its fine to have a barge like bike when you can pull something lighter out of the garage when you start getting passed by weekend warriors. Having your only steed be 11kg's was soul destroying. It played on my mind constantly....

Christ, I've not even mentioned the new bike yet.