I did the N + 1 thing a few weeks ago, here's the new arrival:






And here's the whole fleet:


I've bought four bikes in my lifetime. Missing here is a 1991 Trek 950 mountain bike, which I gave away last year. When I bought the Giant, it sort of pained me to buy a bike with a foreign built frame, as the first three were all US built, but the only US built production frames are the custom Trek Madones, which are way out of my price range. At least the Giant came from Taiwan and not the PRC.

On the left is a 2005 Cannondale Bad Boy. Front and center is the new girl, a Giant Defy Composite 2. On the right is my 1984 Trek 610. I'm not sure this is going to be a true N + 1, and I'll tell you why. Today, as part of my triathlon training I did a 15 mile ride and then a 4 mile run. I rode the Giant for the 15 miles, then changed shoes and hopped on the Cannondale to ride the two miles to the park where I was going to run. What a difference, it was like getting out of a Porsche and into a Jeep!

After the run, I rode back (slowly), got cleaned up and had some lunch. Then, I pulled out the Trek for a short spin around the area. I hadn't been on that one this year, as I had an IT band issue and was working on getting my run distance up for the Oly distance tri I'm about to do. I have to say that I didn't really enjoy riding the Trek, the position is wrong and I spend most of my time staring at the front wheel, and there just aren't enough gears for the hills around here. I don't think I'll be riding it much anymore, the Giant is so much nicer.

I bought that Trek new in 1984, at age 26, but oddly enough, I don't have much of an emotional attachement to it. I used to race sports cars as a hobby, and as part of that I seem to have developed kind of a cold blooded attitude towards machinery. The Cannondale is my ute bike/grocery gettery/path rider, and the Giant is the distance runner/ fun ride /tri bike. That means the Trek is just going to sit, and that seems wrong, so I may be trying to find a new home for it.

There's some discussion on the Classic and Vintage forum about whether or not today's bikes are all that much better. Well, they are, they're vastly better, and they make the cycling experience so much better. It's so nice to have all those gears at hand, and so easily available. The Giant is five pounds lighter than the Trek, which helps on hills, and much stiffer in the desired areas, so the fast descents are much more comfortable.

One last thought: Just because the rider is Classic and Vintage, doesn't mean his or her ride has to be!