No biggie, this rack was actually free. When I moved in to my apartment I found it in a dresser than had been left by previous tenants. Woohoo free stuff. For the Alley Way I was going to go with the Civia Loring rack, or possibly the PDW rack.

I haven't yet ordered it, so no worries there. They actually have one in stock at my LBS though in my frame size, so its pretty convenient to test out. I am going to get the wheel tuned up too, since I hadn't realized that it was a common issue. I truly thought I had damaged something.

My main reasoning for jumping in to the higher end so fast is I have learned from my time as a car fanatic that if its worth doing, its worth doing right. Especially when it comes to reliability. I have been riding the DB non stop, and have nearly 350 miles on it already (lots of fun exploration this holiday weekend!) and I have a pretty good idea for my needs in a rig now. The main limiter on the DB is the lack of fender mount options and the less than inspiring suspension set up. I still like it, but I think I really just made a pretty bad choice with the aluminum frame and lack of expandability. I am in no hurry though, so I will be checking some better options this and next week.

Best part of being car-free? I now have the disposable income to do this sort of thing. It used to be car-audio and performance parts (and the maintenance nightmare that follows), now I can afford really nice bike stuff!