I was completely green about road bikes when I picked up my 1991 Eros in 2009. It was about two weeks before my first RAGBRAI and all of my cycling friends were telling me that I should get a road bike. (They turned out to be right.)

So I looked on Craigslist and found this in a nearby city. It fit well enough, and I was pressed for time so I would have to deal with the pink color. (I love it now.)


(See how clever I thought I was at the time? Who needs to buy fancy water bottles when I can just reuse a plastic Coke bottle and upend it in the bottle cage?)


It's been through a lot of component changes as I tweaked the fit and gearing over the years, now it fulfills its role pretty well.