My New Bike

Yes, I just can't stop buying bikes. ;) Here it is, my newest one, a Giant TCR Composite 2, with Speedplay X/2 pedals, and FSA Compact Cranks (50/34) with an Ultegra 10 speed 11/23 cassette. I'll ride it around for a while before adding aerobars.

This bike is the reward to myself for IMCdA. :) It upgrades my trusty Trek 2000, which has carried me through lots of events, training, and rides in general.

My New Bike


I decided to go with the compact cranks because the 50/34 matched with an 11/23 gives better high and low gear ratios than the traditional 53/39 and 12/25. Read all about it here. Basically, the 53/39 is wildly overgeared for me, yet a triple chainring seems like overkill here in Florida. I do like the triple but one thing that bugs me is the shifting is always a bit off - the chain rubs on the front derailleur more often - just due to the how far the derailleur has to travel.

Now that I have four bikes, I plan to switch a few things around in the upcoming months. Long term, I want to trade in my Cervelo towards a Litespeed - a Tuscany or perhaps a Saber, I'm not sure. It depends on if I want a specific tri-geometry bike, and if I do, perhaps I'd go crazy and get something like a Guru Chrono, since those can be custom tweaked as far as my specific measurements. In the meantime, it is still a good bike and I'll make use of it, but the lure of titanium might be hard to resist. ;) I find myself riding more and more in road groups and thus a road bike is more useful and safe, so I'm moving towards having road bikes, possibly with clip-on aerobars. Even at a tri I don't spend a huge amount of time in the aerobars.

As for the Trek 2000 and Trek 1000 I have - I'll keep one as a power crank bike, and send the other to my parents, so I have something to do when I visit. Who knows, someday I might sign up for a Dallas-area tri and not feel like shipping a bike. I haven't decided whether to make the Trek 2000 the new power crank bike (and thus ship the Trek 1000), or keep the Trek 1000 as the power crank bike (and thus ship off the Trek 2000). The Trek 2000 has nicer components (I had it upgraded to Ultegra) so it might be a waste to put power cranks on it. On the other hand, it might be a waste to be in semi-retirement at my parents. But, the Giant is replacing the Trek 2000, so it won't get much riding from here on out anyway. What might be the deciding factor is that I bought the Trek 1000 locally, and the store I bought it from offers some kind of discount on service.

Or I could keep all of them here. I think of Francesca and her "rain" bike, which also serves as a trainer bike. The thing is here, the concept of "rain" bike is lost, because when it rains, it rains heavily, often with lightning. As a cyclist in the pacific northwest, you had to be willing to ride in a bit of rain. If you could tolerate a minor drizzle, that would greatly increase the number of days you were riding. Here, there isn't really a point to a specific bike for lousy conditions, since when it is lousy, you don't want to be riding anyway.

I'm leaning towards shipping off the Trek 2000... maybe I'll throw it a party and clean it really well before sending it to a new life. ;)