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comment by kleinbl00
kleinbl00  ·  1720 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: July 3, 2019

Sometime tomorrow, on my way home from work, the bike and I will cross 10,000 miles.

I've spent the past couple days trying on others. I ride a Specialized Sirrus from 2015; I've tried three Cannondale Topstones, a couple Treks, a Specialized Sequoia, two of this year's Specialized SIrrus and about five Specialized Diverges, from the basic bitch $1100 model to an S-works DI2, marked down to $3800 from $8800.

Meanwhile Ye Olde Steede has been acting up a bit. I think maybe it got dropped while I was away; the front derailleur was off-kilter a bit. And I can't get the front crank anymore so if I rebuild that I gotta swap out the groupset. And I mean hell. I've done 10k miles on an $800 bike. Everyone's telling me to upgrade.

But an upgrade means committing to being here some more, and I can't do it. I like to pretend there's an ephemerality to my Los Angeles life and buying another bike would mean I anticipate putting another 10k miles on it.

On the plus side, the bike shop decided that what I ride now is in cherry shape. And on the plus side, I much prefer a 2015 Sirrus to a 2019 Sirrus. And really, when I drove a 911 for the first time my Dodge felt like a jellyfish in comparison. It was clearly time. But while riding an $8500 carbon fiber nightmare (the shifters have an operating system) was certainly nice, it sure as shit wasn't $8500 nicer than what I ride now. It wasn't $3800 nicer than what I ride now. Really, it was maybe $500 nicer than what I ride now and that, to me, means I'm gonna try and get that Specialized to 20k.

'cuz I know my life down here isn't ephemeral, no matter how hard I pretend. But maybe in another 3 years it'll be done.