> > This should be a fun thread! > > I started out with normal kid's bikes in the 1970's that were mostly based on BMX designs. At some point my parents bought matching 3-speeds and one of my goals was to be able to ride my dad's "giant" bike. I did have one 10-speed my parents got at K-Mart and I LOVED that bike until the "cassette" fell off a couple of miles from home and I had to walk it back. At some point I discovered I was big enough to ride my dad's 3-speed, which by this time was old and rusty, and I rode that bike until I turned 14 and got a motorcycle. I did pick up a Murray or Roadmaster 10-speed right before my freshman year of college. I knew nothing about how the gearing worked and probably didn't put 20 miles on it before leaving it in the backyard to rust away. This was 1986. Around 1993 or 1994 I got the wild notion that I wanted to get an adult bicycle. I did some research and casually looked at catalogs and at some point got really serious and narrowed my choice down to a Trek 730 Multitrack. I was just starting graduate school and I quit my job of 7.5 years (that I despised). The day after I quit I drove 100 miles to the nearest large city and bought my 19" Trek 730. I got REALLY into it and rode on a daily basis. After about six months I decided I wanted a road bike so I bought a Raleigh R500 aluminum bike. I was amazed by how light and fast it was and managed one 19 mile ride, my longest as an adult, before I decided road biking wasn't for me. I sold it ASAP. I continued to ride that Trek 730 until 2007, when I decided it was time to "upgrade" to an aluminum hybrid. I did my research and bought a Trek 7.2 FX. I was content riding that bike until 2011 or so when I followed a link to RBW from another website that has nothing to do with bicycles. I started reading Grant's ideas and realized that I was already on board with many of them, like wider tires, higher bars, broad gearing range, etc... I decided to get my old 730 back from dad to test the steel vs aluminum difference. The aluminum bike was sportier (stiffer?) and the steel bike was more comfortable. I think a lot my decision came down to excitement about stripping down a steel frame, having it repainted, and then building it back up with new components. I then gave my old 730 back to my dad and started watching Craigslist and E-bay. After three months of constant monitoring, a 1995 21" Trek 730 came for sale in the subdivision across the street from ours! I bought it immediately and sold my 7.2 FX to finance a custom Rich Lesnik rear wheel and cassette. I rode the "new" 730 and continued really researching frame geometry. I discovered that both of my 730's and even my 7.2 FX had what was essentially MTB geometry so I wanted to try "road" geometry. Finding a bike with that geometry that would allow the use of canti brakes and wider tires took awhile but I finally found the Handsome Cycles Devil. I bought the frameset and had it built up with new components I'd purchased. I was thrilled with the bike for the first 6-9 months but then I watched Salsa's "So Far to Go" video and "Ride the Divide". This sparked my interest in a more MTB oriented bike so I picked up used MTB's from the 80's and 90's and discovered I really like the 1995 Trek 820 with 55mm Big Apples. I was now sure about wanting a bike that would allow me to run BA's. This precluded my Devil so the search began anew. At first I decided that Velo-Orange's Camargue was the bike for me but it's trail of 56mm with a 2.1" tire concerned me. All of those Treks, including my 820, had trail in the 70's while my Devil was closer to the Camargue with 61mm of trail. I found an LBS that carries Surly products and test-rode a Karate Monkey and a Troll. I continued to ride my Devil and my old 820. Another issue I had to resolve was whether to switch to drop bars. I put them to the test and they lost out. It's MTB bars all the way for me. At this point I've basically discovered that I prefer a bike that rides like a mountain bike. High trail measurements and shorter chainstays seem to do it for me. I'm decided on selling the Devil and although I love riding the 820, newbikeitus is killing me. Right now I'm contemplating whether to simply build up my 820 with the parts from the Devil, to buy a Troll or to buy an Ogre (equivalent in geometry to the KM). As discussed in another thread here, I'm enamored with the 26" wheels but my long-term goals include riding long distances on dirt and I'm pretty well convinced that 700c tires are preferable in that role. I think once I've saved the money for a new frameset I'm going back to the LBS and just doing a ride-off between the KM and the Troll. It will pretty much be an apples-to-apples comparison and I'll order the frameset that wins out.
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