On a Steel Horse I Ride.

 

I thought I would acquaint you all with the bikes in my stable. I know that I have written about some of them in the past, but here I am, organizing them by order of when they were acquired.

Here is my first real bike I ever got. I bought it with my income tax return in march of 2011 for $800. It is an aluminum frame Motobecane cyclocross bike. I raced road and cyclocross and gravel races and road it on mountain bike trails. If you are poor and want an all around bike that you can do most things on, I recommend getting a CX bike. I still use this bike on my trainer and for RAGBRAI and I rode it around Louisville when we went to Cyclocross Worlds. It is a bike I take when I don't want to worry about it getting stolen. I would be very sad if I didn't have it, but I have other bikes who can do what it does now.

The second bike I acquired was a gift from John. It was his old road racing bike that he fixed up for me to use to race time trials and triathlons. I bought the aero bars and paid $600 for the used  tri-spoke and back disc wheel from a friend of mine. It is an a aluminum frame Specialized E5?. I'm not sure of the year either, but it has served me very well in time trials and triathlons for the last couple of years. There is a chance that I might take over John's old aluminum frame P1 time trial bike, but I haven't been able to get the aero bars and the fit quite right yet.

John bought me my 2012 aluminum frame Cannondale CAAD10 for my 47th birthday. I have never really wanted a a carbon fiber bike. I figure if I need to shave lbs off, it would be cheaper for me to lose the weight than to spend the extra money to get a  comparably lighter bike. So, Cannondale is perfect for me. They make the best aluminum bikes around. It is sweet and twitchy and it helps me go as fast as I'm going to go. I did by a $1000 pair of FLO carbon dish wheels, but they're

still 2,000 dollars cheaper than the dish wheels most of the people I race against own and the rolling resistance is great. Every time I get on this bike I think, "Man, I love my bike so much!"

 

I am still paying off my CX bike. It is a never been owned 2008 (I think?) aluminum frame Guerciotti. John once said he looked for the most obscure bike companies for me because I like having a bike that no one's ever heard of and few people can pronounce. Guerciotti is an Italian company and I've never seen another one in the Midwest so far. I am rough on bikes in general, and on cyclocross bikes specifically. This bike has been perfect for  me. We'll see how happy it is after tomorrow's race when I'll have to throw it up ravines in order to climb up the muddy walls...

 

John got my commuter bike frame at a silent auction last Fall. It is so pretty, I decided it needed to be in a painting. I can't remember what it cost him originally, but with all the parts and wheels and Shimano 105 gearing, it ended up running me about $1200. It is a steel framed Handsome Devil - a small bicycle company in Minneapolis. It is set up for what ever I need. Right now, it has fenders and studded tires and is perfect for commuting to work every day in Iowa Winters. At some point, I might use it to do some touring on, but that might be a few years out.

 

This year for my birthday, John got me an aluminum frame Cannondale Lefty Flash 29'er. John is such a generous person in general, but the fact that he got me a mountain bike, even though he doesn't really want to ride mountain bikes himself, was the nicest of the nice. He bought it used on Ebay, so I'm not sure of the price. All I know is how much I love it. I've never raced a mountain bike before, so for me, it's all just playing in the woods on trails on a really awesome bike.

I realize just how lucky I am to have the bikes I own. I try to ride as many of them in a week as I can. I won't be buying anymore for a while, and most people would think I didn't need anymore, but I sure wouldn't mind a fat bike, or a single speed, or an old 3 speed cruiser bike, or, or, or...