stu wrote:I put too much time, effort, and money into my good bike to let it out of my sight. In the urban Bay Area the half life of an expensive, unattended bicycle is measured in minutes. Even if it's locked, I've seen guys walking around with bolt cutters longer than my arm. Insurance helps but there's the deductible and rate increases from claims. Also time without a bike would bother me.
My deductible is less than the cost to replace my wheels that have mismatched hubs and micro stress fractures around the spoke holes.
I ride a lot of gravel because there's a lot of gravel where I live. I frequently used a restored 1979 Torpado Beta steel racing bike for the packed gravel roads. I have 28 mm Clement Strada LGGs on it. It goes without saying that this bike is perfect for paved roads. For looser stuff or rock strewn roads, I use a Colnago cyclocross bike which is also great on paved roads. For riding in fast company on long and hilly rides, I use a road bike; a trek emonda.
The one thing I noticed is that my Stigmata is pretty quick handling and not as long and sluggish feeling as the Salsa WarBird. I am guessing slightly longer chainstays and a slightly slacker head tube angle on the Salsa. For long straight miles, the Salsa may be a great one but I did not like the feel. My friend, on the other hand, does. If I were on steep single track more (I have MTBs for that) I may prefer the slacker/longer-feeling Salsa. I really like the balanced and slightly sharper handing of the Stigmata. It may be slightly more on the cyclocross since of things as far as its DNA goes. I do not do super long rides though. My friend will do 100 mile+ races and he likes the more stable Salsa because of that.
