While I had no desire to, I looked into trading my road bike in towards a bike more geared to commuting (a cyclocross bike, basically) but that I could still go out for some nice road rides on. I had no dreams of the road bike trade-in completely covering the new bike, but thought it would knock a good amount off, and the balance I could make up with selling my Computrainer (again not desired, but a solid daily commuter that can double for road training is more needed now than the road racer + indoor trainer). Unfortunately the “trade-in” value for the road bike is virtually nill. Granted it’s a 14-year-old bike, but it’s a sweet 14-year-old.
I got my road bike when I was in Arizona in the Army. Doing lots of riding year ’round and getting into doing regular centuries and tackling Mule Mountain. The old Cannondale with it’s super stiff ride was great, but the aluminum transmitted every single crack and bump in the southern Arizona roads straight to my bum. The local bike shop had just built up a road bike from one of Specialized’s new Metal Matix M2 frames. After riding that bike, I knew it was the bike for me. Still stiff and very responsive, but the ceramics in the Matrix dampened the small bumps down really well. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a bike in prebuilt configuration, so I had them build one up custom. I decided to go for the — at the time — new 8 speed Shimano 600 (later called Ultegra) STI indexed shifting. Actually I went with all Shimano 600 groupo except pedals and pads.
All told it came in at 19lbs and a hair under $2000. And it’s been a beautiful bike. Still is. Almost all the good qualities of my Cannondale, but few of the downsides. It’s not perfect, still a harsher ride than good steel or (now) carbon, but much better than oversized aluminum. In the intervening years I have had periods of active riding, trainer-only riding, and a few (but all too long) periods of no riding. My understated gunmetal grey road bike has been with me through Arizona, Virginia, Texas, Idaho and now Connecticut with never a problem worse than a flat tire. Now though, for economy, etc… I was ready to let it go, for a good cause. Of course that was before they told me my old friend was essentially worthless to them (while looking at it nostalgically and drooling over it mind you.)
It may be worthless to them as a business, but to me, it still has future, as well as historical, value. So it stays. Better that way…now I have no excuse to sell the Computrainer, so even when the commute is not realistic because of snow and time of day (I’m not commuting with a foot of fresh snow for a 7 am class!! Go ahead, call me a wimp…), I can still get some time spinning on the Computrainer and maybe even training for some centuries in the spring. The commuter will have to wait, but hey, that just means I will be able to replace the rear cogset with a 9 speed Ultegra set since they need replacing anyways.
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