Another New Bike Day

Well it's been a couple of months so it's time to start looking for (yet) another new bike.  As you can probably imagine, my wife is super excited at this prospect.  In my defense, my 10 year old road bike needs some work and has seen better days so it's time to either start looking for it's eventual replacement or spend several hundred dollars fixing the old girl up, and to be honest, she's not even worth that much.  Here's the list of what I'm looking for in a new bike:

• Great price
• Able to act as an off-road gravel grinder and a road bike for group rides
• Shimano 105 or SRAM Apex components.  I rode SRAM for the first time last weekend and loved it.
• 2 sets of wheels, 1 CX and 1 for road.
• A good fit as is, with the possibility of easy and inexpensive adjustments down the road to dial it in.

I rode a teammate's CX bike last week and thought it was the one.  An unexpected orthodontist bill for my daughter dashed those hopes, though in hindsight it was probably for the best.  It was a great bike and he is meticulous when it comes to maintenance, but it didn't fit quite right and the fork had already been cut, which limited the adjustments I could make.  I would have spent an additional $200 - $400 to dial in the fit and that would have put the bike out of my budget.  

After that I swore off bike buying and told my wife I wasn't even going to look.  That lasted 2 hours... that's when another teammate messaged me that he was selling his CX bike.  We chatted about the bike, price, etc. and I did some research.  The bike itself is only a couple of years old and he was offering it for $200 - $300 less than Bicycle Blue Book value, with an extra set of wheels.  Unfortunately this offer was too good to not at least check out.  It's a 2011 Trek X 01 that was purchased in 2013 on closeout.  It checks off every box on the list up above and he has used it and performed well in triathlons and endurance gravel rides (Dirty Kanza, my goal for next year).  I rode gravel (well, mud actually) last night with the team and had more fun than I've ever had on a road before.  The bike fit reasonably well and is the correct frame size.  It should be simple enough to dial in the fit to get through this season and then next year I will get a professional fit before DK.

The one caveat to this bike is that I am not allowed to discuss a new bike for at least 2 years, which seams fair.  I now have the following bikes

• Specialized Transition Comp Tri Bike (bought used last year, absolutely screaming deal)
• Trek X 01 CX Bike (bought used this year, another screaming deal)
• Focus Black Forest 1.0 Mountain Bike (bought used last year from a bike mechanic, yet another screaming deal with upgraded wheels and tires)
• Trek 1000c (10 year old road bike that will now sit on the trainer)
• Haro Mountain bike (15 year old mountain bike that's seen better days.  I might try to sell it or keep it around the house for when someone from out of town wants to ride)
• Burley Tandem (paid zero dollars for it as my parents were never going to ride it and my sister and brother-in-law will get divorced if they ride it again)

I also bought my wife an extra small Specialized road bike last year with carbon fork and seat stays, Shimano 105 components, etc.  This doesn't take into consideration the multitude of kids bikes, scooters, etc. taking up space in the garage.

Overall I have now bought 4 bikes in the past 8 months (5 if you count the tandem).  The only reason I'm still married is b/c I've gotten amazing deals on each and every one of them.  In fact, if you add up what I paid for all 5 bikes they total less than what you can be expected to pay for a low to mid range tri bike... so I have that going for me.  

To summarize... I bought yet another bike, am still married, rode gravel/mud for the first time last night, am caked with mud, and have a giant grin on my face.  Life is good!