Maelochs

Bike is a tool. Decide on the job and then you know what the best tool might be.

But also ... as has been said, you might find yourself in Utah or Arizona or Michigan or New Hampshire in a couple years, trying to ride a bike not suited to your vacation destination.

And seriously .... don't get rid of the Bridgestone. Consider a cheap single-speed just for variety (you can get a decent SS for a couple-few hundred and it has no parts to break or upgrade.) Consider a recumbent.

if your plan is to ride whenever and wherever you feel like it ... some days you might want to work hard, and other days, be lazy. Some days you might feel like an ten-mile explosion, and the next day a gentle 50-mile unwinding. You might decide you'd like to be able to take trips to the store on your bike---and want racks and bags on that Bridgestone.

And don't let the cheap folks undersell you.

I can fully understand both sides of the debate. On one hand, if you never go fast and never climb hills, you could get a three-speed IGH that weighed a ton, and it wouldn't matter. And some folks would recommend that. Some folks think every penny you spend that you could avoid spending is a huge waste, and some folks think every bit of capacity you don't use on every ride is wasted capacity.

And that is cool. When I built my CF endurance frame, i went with 105 even though i could afford Ultegra. I figured 105 was good enough (based on experience.) But I'd never downgrade my Ultegra bike (went with Ultegra R Der on the Endurance frame, in fact) because it is a tiny bit smoother and easier to operate, it seems to me.

On the other hand ... I could get by with a single bike. And because I am not a pro racer, i could get by with pretty much Any bike. But I get So much joy out of my CF builds .... and I enjoy my two '80s bikes, and my rain/cargo bike, and my cheap grocery-getter. I would give up a couple .... and trade them for a Lynskey Disc Sportive ... but I don't ever plan not to have several bikes, and All of them, even the $500 Bikes Direct bike, are better than I really need.

A my age, i figure i have a limitied number of years left, and while i don't want to blow all my money tomorrow, I don't have any desire to die rich ... I intend to enjoy every penny of the fruits of my labors.

Treat yourself if you like. You really cannot buy Too Much bike. And frankly very few of us here actually use 100 percent of our bikes' abilities on every ride anyway ..... As Mr. Petty says, "You don't have to live like a refugee," in order to follow Sting's observation, "You can live here and be happy with less."

When you think about that, consider that Sting lives in alike a 200-room (not a typo---two-hundred rooms) palace and has like eight kids.

Only you know what is "enough" or "too little" or "too much."

I have a bike which any Pro-Continental racer could ride in competition with only a few small changes to drop a few ounces. And every time I take it off the rack to ride it, joy surges through me. It is Not "too much."