Speaking of which, I once encountered a guy at a Coffee Bean in Vegas (Red Rock, to be exact), who I struck up a conversation with because he was a rider (rockin' the full kit), and I was just getting into the sport at that time. He asked me what bike I rode, what I did for a living, sized me up. I asked about his Litespeed Vortex because I thought it was a sweet bike, and he proceeds to say, "That bike is probably out of your budget - it cost me around $7k or so. You're better off looking at a Cervelo or something else like that." Granted that it was true (the out of the budget part), I thought it was pompous of him to ASSume that. As he went in to order his coffee, my mind was filled with thoughts of two options:

1) Jump on his Litespeed and take off like hell, and have my wife meet me a mile away and throw that bike in the SUV and call it a day.

2) Wished I had a U-lock that I didn't mind parting with and locking his bike to a permanent fixture and then casually taking off.


But level-headedness got the best of me, so I just sat back and enjoyed the rest of my latte.