Love the One You’re With

When it comes to marriage I’m strictly a one woman man, and Stoker is she. That is her preferred pronoun. I like to say my hobbies are cycling, chess and monogamy. But when it comes to bikes I fool around.

My cycle harem consists of 3 beauties. None is really current state of the art, but they all are quality framesets built with high quality components and none of them will hinder the performance of a strong rider. Since I’m not really a strong rider, all I can say is that they make the most of my limited physical resources. And in no particular order, here they are:

The Sampson was my first really nice bike. I got it back in 2000. It has been my primary travel bike and I’ve ridden it all over the western U.S. and in Italy and France. The titanium frame will last longer than I will, but over the years I’ve changed the components from Dura Ace 9 speed to DA 10 to Ultegra 11 speed. As you see her (all my bikes have specified their preferred pronouns to be the same as Stoker’s: she and her) she weighs 18.2 lbs.

Next in line is my rocket ship, a 2014 S Works Tarmac SL-4. With SRAM Red mechanical components and HED Ardennes wheels this beauty tips the scale at about 5 paper clips under 15.0 lbs. That includes the pedals and water bottle cages too. She is stiff as a board and light as a feather, but with Schwabe road tubeless 700×25 tires at 90 psi the ride isn’t too harsh. I love this bike. It is my favorite of the three. I even do fairly well going downhill on it since the ride is so solid and stable.

Finally the most elegant and stylish of the three, a LOOK 586 Limited Edition. The frame is labeled #146/200, which gives it cachet. It is made in France, which gives it more cachet. I got it back in 2010 to replace a similar LOOK 585 that was stolen outside a coffee stop in Moraga. The thief knew what he was after: there were 13 very nice SBC bikes lined up but he took the most well known expensive one; easy to fence.

Depending on which wheels I put on the 586, she weighs from 15.4 lbs. to 16.3 lbs. Her components are Dura Ace 10 speed so I’m going to need to update at some point, since even DA does not last forever and I think these levers and derailleurs have something like 25,000 miles on them. But the big drawback is that these older DA components will not allow anything larger than a 28 tooth cassette, and I need lower gears at this point in my cycling life.

We also have a very nice CoMotion tandem and I have some very nice ‘extra’ wheel sets. If I were to add up all the discretionary income I spent on this equipment I might be taken aback, and most non cyclists would be absolutely shocked. But this good stuff brings me a lot of enjoyment and pleasure, and it is nice to have some variety in one’s cycling life. But Stoker’s ‘infinite variety’ will suffice in the relationship department.