Discontent

I've always liked riding bikes. When we were too young for driver's licenses, my friend Ben and I used to ride our bikes to Wendy's and try to get them to serve us at the drive-thru. In college I started riding again because it was the best way around (and, eventually, to) campus. My first year in the DC area I didn't ride much, mostly because I lived in Arlington and worked downtown. When I moved into the District I started riding again, and to this day I'm still riding the 2000 Cannondale M400 MTB I bought to commute on.

Cannondale M400 bike in our living room, in front of a curio shelf. In the foreground is a large box from Chewy, out of which a cat's left ear can be seen poking.

The geometry is surprisingly similar to a modern gravel bike, but the stock bars were killing my wrists. I'd idly thought about component upgrades but if I'd switched to drop bars I also would have had to buy new brake levers and shifters, and I still wouldn't have had disc brakes. I did install a Jones H-Loop bar on a shorter stem, and that mostly fixed my wrist issues. In retrospect I could have gone with an even shorter stem than the one I bought, but I was worried about changing the handling too much.

So anyway, for a few years now, in the back of my mind, I've kind of wanted a bike that was “like this, but.” I'd already discovered that the frame geometry was very much like a modern gravel bike (similar seat and head tube angles, wheelbase, and bottom bracket height) so I thought that the drop bars, disc brakes, and stack height of a modern gravel bike would be really nice to have. But I was also wary of falling into the N+1 trap (see below) so I steadfastly refused to think about this except in the most abstract of terms.

Rule #12 // The correct number of bikes to own is n+1. While the minimum number of bikes one should own is three, the correct number is n+1, where n is the number of bikes currently owned. This equation may also be re-written as s-1, where s is the number of bikes owned that would result in separation from your partner.

A few things just made me change my mind. The Cannondale is starting to have some stacked up maintenance needs that I either don't have the tools for (squeaky bottom bracket, rims that need some attention) or have lost patience for (sticky shifting between a couple gears that I think means I may need to overhaul the shifter and/or replace the cables). I've been using Capital Bikeshare e-bikes more lately when I need to go one-way and that way is uphill, and while the power is nice, the riding experience is awful. Both of those are minor, but the thing that really pushed me over the edge was … an autoimmune disease.

I'd known for a few years (five, it turns out) that my regular blood tests indicated that I had some kind of autoimmune disease, but I'd been able to ignore it. This year the fatigue seemed to be getting a lot worse though, and I talked to my doctor about it, and finally saw a rheumatologist to check out my blood test results. But The New Fatigue™ means I just don't have the stamina to do rides I've done hundreds of times before. Riding back from a (different) doctor's appointment, I basically bonked, and I felt it for three days afterward instead of recovering as soon as I'd had some rest. This was the first time I'd felt that fatigued for that long. And I hated it.

So I went from “maybe I'd like a new gravel bike, someday” to “I should get an e-bike, like, now.” It was Labor Day weekend and thus time for REI's annual sale, but the more I looked at commuter/cargo e-bikes the more I realized that if I bought one of those, I'd definitely end up wanting something like a gravel/adventure/all-road e-bike in addition. Which sure smells a lot like the N+1 rule all over again, and I don't want to fall into that trap. So I wondered, “is an electric gravel bike a decent commuter?” And the internet kind of says yes. Could I have found an N=1 bike?

The answer turned out to be … a qualified maybe? I found a few decent bike models that covered my wishlist (comfortable position, drop bars, disc brakes, 2× drivetrain, not too heavy) but actually being able to buy one (from a local bike shop, not online) and justify the cost ($2.5K was table stakes; $3.5K seemed to be the real going rate) was going to be hard. But then I found a clearance deal on a GT eGrade Bolt. Velofix isn't so much an LBS (“Local Bike Shop”) as a storage unit and somebody with a van, but they seem to have two mechanics in the DC area and feedback on /r/bikedc wasn't bad.

One bike, in a good color even, and only available in the size I needed. Was this too good to be true? You bet. It was an inventory error, and GT is out of stock of this old model (and haven't yet introduced its successor). So my order was canceled and refunded. Cannondale, owned by the same parent company, has an equivalent model, the Topstone Neo SL 2, that has the same 2×10 drivetrain as the discontinued one from GT and I can't help but think it's also maybe due for a replacement. Trek's equivalent, the Domane+ AL 5 is out of stock in my size in every color.

That left me with basically one model I could even try to buy locally, the Salsa Confluence GRX 600 2x, but it's a new model this year, so it's full price everywhere. I was about to give up, and then the clock passed midnight and REI's Member Days deals went live. Extra 10% back if I used their credit card. Getting this year's model with 20% back to pay for accessories was certainly tempting, but I made myself sleep on it.

The next morning it still didn't seem like a bad idea, so I figured I'd leave it to the fate of “can I even get approved for the credit card?” No card, no deal (literally). Well, sure enough they approved me for the card and I could get a virtual card number through the app, so I ordered a(nother) bike!

I went about my day. The next morning I figured I should get a head start picking out accessories like pedals, fenders, and a new lock, so I opened up a new REI tab. And there was a banner saying that there was now a Member Match offer for an additional 10% back in the form of a store bonus card, for purchases made Saturday and Sunday only. The offer was not applicable to previous purchases, but I had the available credit on the new REI Co-op Mastercard I'd just opened the day before. So I ordered my third new bike in three days.

Yes, this is actually the same screenshot as the one above it, so your browser doesn't have to request another image

It's absurd. REI won't let you cancel an order in progress, so my local REI is going to have a spare bike exactly like mine. I feel bad for increasing their overhead, but I didn't make the rules, and $350 in store credit makes it worthwhile to me.

After years of convincing myself that I didn't need another bike, it's definitely weird to have placed three orders in three days just to get to the point of finally owning one more. I wonder if I should sell the Cannondale.

Update: I've now posted some impressions of my new bike.