Hill-Pumper

This addiction that we call cycling is affecting me again. I thought I had a complete stable to keep me complacent, but evidently not. I know the symptoms well. It first starts out by riding one of your older bikes that you know has a few issues. Then that leads to looking at new bikes, and then to research to prove in your head that a new bike is the only way to solve the issues with the old bike. All this culminates with the trip to the bike store to prove to yourself that the new bike is what you need now. Of course there is the test ride, which is the final confirmation that the old bike is a terrible machine that must no longer be part of your life. Then the realization that a new bike is going to cost more money then the paid for old bike, but never fear, the new bike will solve worlds problems, and it is a small price to pay to solve world problems... right?

Anyway, I don't know why I do this to myself. My old bike is actually not bad, but if there is a group that understands the wants/needs of cycling, it is this group. Biking is the one thing that outside of my family that keeps me sane, and feeling like a kid. I made it to the test ride today stage today. I'm sure it will follow me home soon enough. If nothing else, this is sort of like group therapy. Thanks for letting me share.

Maybe I should have started this by saying, my name is Jeff, and I am a bike-a-holic.

chasm54

My version of the 12-steps program is to observe a rule that I can only get a new one if I dispose of one of the old ones. I even managed fo dispose of one without replacing it, last year, on the grounds that I had three road bikes and the overlap between their riding styles and performance was such that one of them didn't get ridden much. So now I'm down to only four - an ageing but still excellent out-and-out racing bike, a custom steel road bike, a SS/FG and a heavy-duty expedition tourer. That seems very conservative to me, my compulsion is clearly well-controlled.

On the other hand, my tours aren't quite as remote or rugged these days, so maybe the expedition tourer could be traded in for a traditional drop-bar touring bike. And I really do need to think about electronic shifting on the racing bike...

OldsCOOL

I like to collect the old bikes that others dont want anymore.

SammyJ 

Don't buy new, look for a good used bike.

chasm54

LOL. I can't help feeling that you and the OP aren't quite on the same wavelength.

tg16

Thanks for the post on your addiction. I'm now convinced it is viral and can be transmitted by reading or hearing about it from someone else, in this case Hill-Pumper. I want one too.

Rick@OCRR

My addiction doesn't cause me to buy new bikes (very often) but does keep me riding seven days a week, about 250 miles per week.

My wife (also a cyclist) thinks I ride too much. She says I don't recover well. So, OP, I think you're fine with you new bike purchase . . . so long as it doesn't consume your life; like cycling has consumed mine.

Rick / OCRR

Jim from Boston

I thought my bike addiction was gone....

“Hi. My name is Jim, and I’m a mileage junkie…”Hi, Jim.”

“I started out touring, just week end trips, then week-long, and eventually a cross country tour. I thought I could stop…Just commuting to work…then year round, and then I found a way to train for centuries.

"After years of this 'soft riding' I discovered the 'hard stuff' - speed work and intervals, and now I can’t stop…I may be coming a…a…a roadie."