4 years ago I started cycling on a used, light pink Peugot Triathlon w/ a Shimanon 105 6-speed group. My kids made fun of me, "daddy's rides a pink bike!" The color didn't seem to slow me down too much, though, and the 501 steel tubes rode very nicely. The bike shifted precisely and stopped when asked.

One day this spring, and several thousand miles later, I nearly fell over in the busiest intersection in town. The bike wouldn't steer. The bars were locked straight ahead. The notchy shifting I was experiencing, I called it index steering, finally progressed to full-blow seizure of the headset.

I discovered that the quill stem corroded itself to the steel steerer. "Time for a new bike," I said to myself, credit card in hand. New aluminum bike is light, climbs like a goat and rides like a NYC subway compared to the old Peugot.

Moral of the story: Grease your quill stem twice a year. Bike color has almost no effect on speed. Everything they say about steel is true. Index steering is not as good as index shifting.