General Cycling Discussion - Talk me out of this - PLEASE

I bought my first non wally world bike on 2/5/05 - a really impressive Giant Boulder SE. Its a great bike despite the component short comings. In that time I've put 350 miles on it. About a 1/3 on single track and the rest on the road. At the same time I bought my wife a Giant Sedona LX, which has about 200 miles on just because she doesn't get the opportunity to ride as much.

So here's what I want you to talk me out of. Last weekend my wife and I were riding the local trails and we swapped bikes. I rode her Sedona (a mountain based hybrid) and she rode my Boulder. After 10 minutes I heard her yelling that she was "addicted." After that I told her she really needed to get a different bike cause the Sedona just wasn't built for single track. She suggested I buy a new bike and give her my Boulder (we ride the same size). Now two days later I am seriously considering the following:

Purcahsing at one time: one Giant NRS for me (I was set on a hardtail, but LBS has just about convinced me to go this route), one Giant Trance 3 for her, and one Giant TCR 2 for me (cause I'm riding the roads more than dirt anyway).

I had planned on a road bike in the future anyway. I just figured to go on and do it all in one shot in hopes that I can work out a better deal with the LBS. Given that I didn't even own a bike 4 months ago I can't believe that I'm even considering this - HELP ME PLEASE. Should I wait until we both have more time than 4 months?, or go ahead and dive in head first? While I'm at it I'll make this a what bike thread and ask for suggestions on that. Due to LBS I really only have access to Giant, Specialized (limited) and Trek. Thanks and sorry for the long post.

I want to talk you out of it but I can't. When I started, I did not realize how nutso I was going to go over cycling so I bought a relatively inexpensive Specialized Sequoia Elite. Three months later, I was spending thousands for a CF Roubaix Pro, and I just spent another $6000 for a time trial bike. This has all occurred in about 11 months. Buy it - life is too short! :D

Consider a cyclocross bike. The Trek XO 1 looks nice, though I'm not crazy about aluminium for general riding. It should give you a decent single track ride, but be a good road ride as well, tho' you may want to switch out the tires.

If you want to be talked out of buying a bike, you should have posted in a car forum. ;)

My advice is to just buy a single bike for you and give your old one to your wife. Then, after you've had a bit of time on that one, you can upgrade again.

Conundrum, I'd be a little more frugal at this point. The Federal Reserve is tightening the money supply again. The last time they did this it caused a recession in the overall economy and a depression in the Tech sector. And right now our economy is much more fragile than it was in 1999.

same here...its good for ya and relatively inexpensive...you....must...buy...................................................
however, after going through 15 bikes myself it takes awhile to find the perfect bike ($$ and fit considering)....so please try many and buy the ONE....giant "probably" will give you best value for $$ at LBS but too many variables. i heartily encourage you to drive somewhere else that has other brands and checkem out...especially steel bikes which are getting few and far between....you WILL find that steel or Ti is almost always much more comfy in the long run and ya mightaswell get a good one now instead of upgrading later (more bux in long run)....or even a good used steel steed that your LBS can work on/fix for you....
though I never bought one here I came close cause the DEALS are great http://www.bikesdirect.com and if you get your bike dimensions you like from LBS they will probably match up closely with something online.

You sound willing to ride whatever you have, so I say buy whatever bike would encourage your wife to ride more. Then buy yourself a roadie since the Boulder is more mtb than roadie.

Talk you out of it? You just talked me into it! If you have that kind of cash around I say go for it. Just remember you have to eat! Good Luck!

Let her take yours, get a different Mtb for you and use her Sedona on the roads. Way too sensible, but it works. If that fails go with plan "A" and put the Boulder on e-bay and have it. Let's face it you're really not going to be happy with anything other than 3 new bikes... Oh you said talk you out of it. Sorry. ;)

are alllll your financial responsibilities taken care of? If you say no, here is your out...otherwise drop the cash :D

Conundrum, I'd skip the NRS and get the XTC and put the saved dollars toward your wife’s bike. I picked up an XTC a few weeks ago and it is fantastic. I don't see a real benefit in getting a semi full-suspension bike (as the NRS is not a downhill bike). It just adds more weight and is another thing that will need servicing. Watching the Olympics all the riders were on hard tails. Either way good luck.

CHEERS.

Mark

Thanks for the input - guess I should have known better than to ask a bike forum to talk me out of buying bikes. I'm still kicking around with the LBS. They had to order the NRS in my size for test ride purposes so I'm waiting to go ride it. I'm still really torn between sticking with hardtail and getting the XTC or switching to fully squishy. At 33 I'm inclined to go on and get the suspension, but I've never felt like I was being "beat up" by my hardtail. I'll report how it ends up.

Thanks
C.

Full suspension is NOT for comfort purposes...it is designed to allow you to ride better...if you want comfort get a suspension seat post. LoL.

Well did you get the bike(s) or was this thread successful?

Can never have enough bikes... Go for it.

still waiting on the LBS to get the NRS in. I'll post what happens either way - althought I have a very strong hunch that the thread will be unsucessful.

c.

Got the dough? If so, get a bunch of different bikes. Road, mountain, combos, whatever. Life is short. Ride...have fun...

let me know how you like the NRS. Also, where do you live in the Miss. Gulf Coast area? I grew up in Slidell so I spent many a summer day on the Miss. Gulf Coast, especially Ship Island.

Live in Pascagoula - all the way at the east end of the coast. I've been to Ship a few times but some of the other islands are closer. My time on my bike will suffer during the summer weekends due to those islands, as I'm out there most of them.

I'll report on the NRS when I get to sit on it.

C.

Well it is my sad duty to inform those nice enough to reply to my thread that you were unsuccessful. My check book is now considerably lighter, but on up side my garage has much cooler inventory of bikes :).

Does this qualify me as addicted?
c.

She suggested I buy a new bike and give her my Boulder.

Does she have a sister?

Nope - afraid she's an only child - but I do consider myself very lucky!!

In the buying of bikes is the getting of wisdom.

More bikes = more wisdom

Buy another bike = Solomon & Tomorrow as the good book would have said had the translation been correct.

Unfortunately, they bought hay guzzling chariots and were led astray, becoming known as Sodomy and Gonorrhea. People used to sleep on pillows of salt to try and cure it

I'm feeeling faint so will sign off now. Logging on to jesussaves.creationscience does terrible things to a man

If you want to be talked out of buying a bike, you should have posted in a car forum. ;)

My advice is to just buy a single bike for you and give your old one to your wife. Then, after you've had a bit of time on that one, you can upgrade again.

That sounds like the plan to me. A new bike three times will be more fun than three new bikes at once, and your experience with one bike my send your "I wants" in a different direction than you think now.

Did you end up getting the NRS? If so, what are your thoughts thus far?

I did end up with NRS - I put 20 miles on it on the local trails this past weekend and loved it. I never noticed any bob while pedaling and the suspension let me keep the power on in the bumpy parts of the trail. The only comment I would make is the same as some other reviews - I'm not sure about the stock tires. The trails were really wet and slippery so that may have had something to do with it, but they did not appear to hold traction well - the tread kept getting packed with sand and wouldn't shed it. Hopefully I'll be out again this weekend to get some more time on it. Overall - I'd highly recommend it.

c.

Where do you ride at around Pascagoula?

It is possible to have too many bikes ,when you start tripping on them.

The two closest are some trails behind the University of South Alabama in Mobile and the Bethel trails in the bottom of the DeSoto Forrest north of Biloxi. Either way I'm riding 45min to an hour to get dirty - sucks but at least I can ride water front on my road bike out of my driveway.

He (or she) who dies with the most bikes wins!

Did the wife get a Trance 3? If so, which one, NRS or Trance, do you prefer?

She did get the Trance, but hasn't had a chance to get it dirty yet. Based soley on test riding it I prefer the NRS, but I started out intending to buy a hardtail anyway. My wife tends to like the full squishy a little more than me so she went with the Trance and definately prefered it over the NRS. Hopefully we'll ride this weekend so we'll have a little more experiance to evaluate the two.

Talk you out of it... that would be enethical and immoral.

Like skydive69 I just dumped 4.2k on a TT bike and over 3.1k on my road bike... come on, you are talking small change here... :D

Don't spend more than you can afford.

Talk you out of it... that would be enethical and immoral.

I agree. I normally choose a bike to fit my budget and then buy the model two levels higher....I can't help myself.

Hi my name is Mark and I am addicted to bikes.:D

CHEERS

Mark