That New Bike Feeling

I've just upgraded my mountain bike and road bike. My work is part sponsored by Specialized Australia and as an employee I get access to bikes at very good prices. This deal has been in the pipeline for a while now and just got approved, following which I promptly put in my order for an Epic Expert 29er and a Tarmac Expert.

Both are amazing machines...easily the nicest bikes I've had the fortune of owning. Every ride I find more reasons to love these bikes. Today I rode the Epic at Gap Creek in Brisbane and I just can't get over how smooth, how fast and how responsive it is. In two hours I rode every trail in the trail network and felt like I was riding like a pro. It climbs like a mountain goat and the big wheels just seem to eat up the bumps.

The roadie is also a blast. When you contrast it against the past two bikes I've been riding, you can see the difference is like night and day. The last road bike I owned was an Avanti Corsa which I bought from a mate. It had a carbon fork and carbon chain and seat stays, with an aluminium main triangle and full Ultegra componentry. I bought it second hand, and my friend estimated he had done about 8,000km on it. I put another 8,000km on it, at which time I discovered a crack in the left hand side chain stay, just behind the bottom bracket. This happened in July 2010.

Luckily my brother had a road bike I could borrow - a steel Jamis with 105 components, a carbon fork and some Mavic aftermarket wheels. It wasn't the lightest and latest thing, but it did the job while I waited on the new Specialized deal to come through.

So compared to these two, the new Tarmac is amazing - hell, it stands out on its own merits as the best road bike I've ever owned. It's really light, although certainly there are lighter bikes out there (possibly not many at this price point). It's comfortable and fast and it looks damn nice too. I haven't done any rides over 100km on it yet, but I hope too soon. I'll post some pictures of both bikes soon.