Ok this is more a ramble than anything else, oh and my dyslexia normaly excels on a friday so forgive me in advance.

Is this the way for a lot of people?

joined a new company 2 and half years ago, was politley pointed out to me by the HR lady that i was a little portly, the office was only 5 miles from my home and that we had bike bins and shower facilities in the office. So after her comments and goading by my colleagues, i go to halfords and spend £200 on an 'urban' bike.

For the next three months i'm sweating gibering wreck, wondering what the hell i'm doing. I'm exhausted, i seem to be a magnet for cars and lorries and i can't get the taste of attercliffe (bad road in sheffield) out of my mouth.

But then, things begin to click, i'm losing weight, i can go up the stairs without keeling over, i've even begun to extend my route. I even find if i don't ride, i'm a bit edgy, hmm addiction comes in many forms.

OK, two years later, have three defined routes for summer and three for winter, a sprint route, 6 miles, usual route, 10 miles and a few more hills of sheffield 12 miles. We throw in a ride round the peaks every couple of weeks 35 'ish miles. Also convinced the other half and kids so go out for a thrash in the woods whenever we can.

OK, that was just the preamble, my real question was on kit. First bike £200 urban from halfords, six months later seems i'm taking this seriously, £500 HT from LBS. One year later £1200 cross bike (the argument of saving me petrol seems to be a little week now) that flies, so fast, my word.

I then look at my HT MTB, friend added Revelations to his, hmmm, £300 later i too have a set, need new BB, would also like better shifters and cranks. Eventually i get to the point where i'm thinking, rather than attcah all this new stuff, why don't i pass the 'old' HT to my other half. Week later i have a very shiny new frame, and seem to have gone all Chris King and Hope, XTR etc..

So after rambling, is this the usual way, you buy a cheap bike, you then buy a more expensive bike, you then convince yourself you need a slightly differant sort of bike (cross or FS etc) more expensive again of course; you then buy bits to upgrade the original 'dear' bike, but buy so many bits you build a completley 'new' bike?

Is this what i have to look forwards to?

that is the way. and well played all round! 🙂

got any pics of the latest bike, sounds like a beauty!

high5!

what a great story. You're correct in what you've got coming.
The traditional formula for working out how many bikes you need is:

Ideal number of bikes = n + 1 (where 'n' is the number of bikes you currently own)

Props to the HR lady!

excellent story, but the next step IIRC is that you start to get all evangelistic and buy a rigid steel hardtail, giving up on gears eventually start running in instead, as why do you need a bike to do what you can do yourself…..

😛

aah, pics, well before i accidently called into westbrook cycles whilst on a company trip yesterday, i could have taken a pic of it on stand, all set up just waiting on fitting the rear mech.

i seemed to accidently buy a shiny blue headset, so rushed home last night and removed the perfectly good FSA one, before being shouted at to come back in doors.

will oblige though.

PS Westbrook very good, very helpfull, wish they were nearer sheffield.

LOL – a tale from my own heart 😉

Excellent story indeed, I went the same way up to 4 bikes in 5 years. Then a couple of years ago I decided to quit spending money on bikes, at least to reduce spending. I sold everything except one bike (Zaskar/100mm forks) and some spare parts. The thing is that number of spare parts kept growing and finally I built a new bike from "spare parts" just a week ago.
oops. Now I've got two practically identical bikes (Al HTs, 100mm forks, Zaskar and one local brand) but I don't want to part with either of them but at least I reached the major goal: now I spend on bikes much less than before.

ah, one more thing: my weight went down from 92-93 kilos to 79-80.

Mr Z1ppy,

of the six who ride regular, two are single speed and one is fixed, he's nearly converted me a couple of times, but then he blows it by having to push it up Curbar Gap. Also partner is regular runner, too much pain, plus fit as she is, she suffers on the hills 🙂

been there, started like that …. Halfords Shockwave to Kinesis XC>120
one component at a time :-]

Me too Mongoose fully rigid for £150 now on £3.5k Yeti!

Thats seems pretty much blob on to me! I've upgraded my last 2 bikes till the only original part is the frame. Then sold the frame & put the better parts onto an nicer frame, and so it continues…..