New Bike!

That’s right!  Another new bike!  Between selling some crap, a massive mortgage escrow refund check and the simple fact I wanted a new road bike- I went and bought one!  My original road bike (aka Nikita, `09 Giant Defy) has been such a great bike, but I felt the need to upgrade the all aluminum bike.  So Nikita has been put into near retirement and will continue to get miles on the trainer in my garage.

I was targeting a new Giant TCR Advance 2, as I was after a lightweight bike that would be good to sprinting, climbing, and distance.  Of course this could be a general utility bike as well.  However, it turns out that Giant will be redesigning the TCR for next year.  So, why buy a brand new bike that will be completely redesigned within the next 8 months?  So, I figured to give the BMC TeamMachine SLR02 a test ride and the first word to mind describing the ride is DAMN!!  This bike has a massive down tube, in fact you almost don’t even want to see the bike as an option as a lightweight bike because of that, but surprisingly the bike is super light!  The bike is the stiffest I have ever ridden and has the feel that you could fly around corner and up hills with minimal effort.  The fork also adds to the stiffness of the bike that truly does make you feel like you can control the bike like no other.

The biggest problem?  The cost.  The BMC was significantly more expensive, in fact the TeamMachine costs more than the TimeMachine!!  Which is mind blowing!!  I was 100% ready to pull the trigger on the Giant TCR, but the TeamMachine not so much.  I had to go home and think on it for 2 days or so.  Then went and test rode it again!  I was sold!  I ended up getting the bike and now I have started a small BMC family of bikes!