What bicycle do you need?

While I was on the climb yesterday, I was passed by some young guy that had a 39-52 and probably am 11-25. He had an 11 speed. He had it in the 23 and was going 8 mph faster than I was. He was in ONE gear and he probably went to the top in that gear. So of what need was the 11 speeds? Descending that hill on the other side is a 40 mph drop. A 52-11 cannot really be used since it would just barely keep up with the rear wheel. On the flats you a goof rider not of Pro-level could use the 52-15. So here is a good sports rider that is using three or four gears while he is paying for the excess wear from 11 speeds, narrower chains and cogs and rings. And the front derailleur drags half of the time.

Yesterday was almost a nightmare for me. A quarter of the way into the ride the wax job on the chain gave up. Imagine climbing 5 miles with the chain rattling and the front derailleur somehow having lost calibration (chain stretch I suppose) so that it had an audible "CLACK-CLACK" every revolution of the cranks. At one time it derailed both inside on the cranks and all the way inside on the Cogs! I immediately knew what had happened and stopped without taking a spin on the cranks. I put then chain back on and because it was a wax job there were no black marks on my hands. But this will all have to be repaired today. That is after I bleed the brakes on the Felt so that I have access to my repair stand. I have to sell off these carbon bikes. The latest disk version of the Colnago has a frame along selling for 20% more than I'm asking for a Dura Ace 11 speed Di2 version of a completed bike. After sending two bikes across country I will stick to Craigslist. The transportation prices are so far out of hand for what you get that I don't want customers paying that much. Not to mention that in New York if you sell a used bike from a private owner you STILL have to pay 10% sales tax. Face to face from Craigslist you don't have that problem.

Early season is still early season and I only have 800 miles and 20,000 feet of climbing. And I am still completely exhausted after a simple ride. I am registered for a late season Century so I have to build up to that so hopefully Gavin Loathsome will be thrown do far out of office that he hits Hawaii. And we can then all get down to the business of living a normal life again.