Lessee, my first bike was a Columbia something-or-other, 24-inch wheels that I got in 2nd grade. When I outgrew that, # 2 was a no-name 3-speed. The cheap 3-speed hub broke and was replace by a 2-speed, then when that broke by a single-speed. Then I handed it down to a brother and got a new Schwinn single-speed (# 3.) About the time I got my drivers license, that was stolen. A year or so later I got a new Raleigh Record (# 4) to ride to College. Hated it, sold it cheap to a brother and got a CCM Silver Ghost (# 5.) When I eventually started doing longer tours, I rebuilt it but eventually it was just too long in the tooth and I bought a Trek 1000 (# 6.) The Trek was sufficient for a few years, but like the Silver Ghost before it, I never felt like I could get good speed out of it, and besides it hurt my hands AND my butt. So # 7 was a RANS V-Rex. That was the bike that finally let me break 2.5 hours for a 50-miler; but by then I'd caught the speed bug. Enter #8 , an Optima Baron lowracer. By my old standards (never having broken 5.5 hours for a century on my uprights,) the Baron was amazing, and I lowered the mark to 4:31 for 106 miles. Still not enough, when the chance came along to pick up a broken NoCom frame, I grabbed it. That became # 9. If the Baron was amazing, the NoCom was stinking fast. Since getting it, it's been a 'work in progress,' but I think it'll be totally road-ready this spring.
While the lowracers were fast, they weren't very sociable. So when the budget allowed, I started looking for a highracer. The bullet points were dual-700c wheels, and carbon. I expected to lose a little speed to gain height. As I was doing the research, I noticed on the M5 page that the recommended inseam length for the dual-700 was something like 37". That was crazy, since I knew someone my height that rode one. So I emailed him and asked him if there were any problems. He answered back, no, and by the way, he was selling his. That 'done deal' became # 10 . As it turned out, although it's slower than my NoCom, it's faster than my Baron. Some of the shorter guys can even get a draft off me!
I've posted pics of my lowracers and highracer here before; so I'm not going to re-post them now. I *MAY* post a new pic of my NoCom when the work is finished.
The only one I'd call a 'mistake' was the Raleigh.