Hm.. didn't mean for this thread to become like my own personal blog on the subject -- would like to see about other peoples' bikes, reflections, experiences, etc -- however at the risk of looking like a showoff (so unlike me in the past...) I shall continue posting about my mostly relatively recent journey into the subject.
It has kind of surprised me to emerge as one of those things that will probably be a constant forevermore... riding and fixing your bike, there aren't many purer joys in life...
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After a few months of riding my Trek a few times a week after work for "a good ride" (usually about 1-1.5hrs or so), I could really feel a difference. There is a biketrack closeby but I'd venture at my own chosen speed around every unknown path around that took my fancy and take in all the geography, it's very therapeutic.
I have a buddy that joined a poncy riding club where they ride together on the latest lightest roadbike they can afford and try to keep up at a certain speed, all closely monitored for analysis (heartrates, pedalling rpm cadence, etc) on their fancy bike computers, but that didn't appeal to me. He paid up big fees to be part of that and then when he couldn't keep up fitnesswise and very expensive bike maintenance cost wise (every time he broke a spoke it cost him a small fortune), and couldn't keep up with the regular rides and he couldn't get his money back, he felt quite burnt on his investment...
But I did want to get a good roadbike.
But, what kind? I was just starting out, did I really need what the bike shops would try to sell me? Did I, like my friend, need to pay a decent chunk of change for a 'bike fit' when I bought a new bike? He underwent a lengthy process of being measured, his riding position analyzed, his bike seat and seatpost and handlebars being tweaked a few critical millimetres or degrees... There are various theories about it and they get quite scientific. Some even argue that although your riding 'fit' may not feel the most comfortable at first, you 'grow into it', etc... Buying a roadbike wasn't like buying a motorbike where one size fits all, my friend told me, as he made suggestions to me about what suitable good-value 'beginner' brands (with corresponding low grade specs and so on) I might start with... It made me sick, I just wanted a nice bike that just felt good to ride. It didn't have to be carbon, it didn't have to be a brand that every other guy and his dog bought... As I kept enjoying the hell out of Trek hybrid, I'd glance at 2nd hand bikes on Gumtree for clues, and I was tempted to go for another Trek. Yeah, I'd probably buy another Trek so I looked closer at specific models.
Then, I started to learn about the Lance Armstrong story... It was unavoidable, he had confessed on Oprah that he had taken performance enhancing drugs and his 7 Tour de France "wins" had been stripped. Documentaries were coming out describing not just the prevalence of blood doping with Armstrong and others in cycling and so on but about the questionable ethics of some of the players and companies involved, like Trek... the more I found out about Trek and their dodgy treatment of primarily Greg Lemond (former US cycling champion who had won 3 Tour de Frances), who had his own bike company and who was getting Trek (whose star athlete was Armstrong) to manufacture Lemond bikes when their relationship soured over Lemond's public comments over time related to doping in cycling and his suspicions that Armstrong had been doping, the more reluctant I was to buy another Trek.
So in the middle of all that I found my first serious road bike:
details in my next post.