A gear head’s guide to not buying everything at once
If you're anything like me you love buying new gear. Here is my framework for reasoning about and justifying those inevitable purchases.
Buy the thing that is usable now and gives you data for your final purchase. If it keeps you safer or gets you training more, probably buy it. If you're on the fence, track how much you'd want to buy it before buying it.
Three tests before you buy anything
This is what I actually use now, and it is how I ended up with both the Zwift setup and the SkiErg - neither of which I regret, against a long list of tabs I never opened again.
What I actually bought, in order
The order is most of the argument, so here is the whole sequence before I get into any of it. Nothing here was bought at the same time and nothing was bought twice. Note: another option is to rent a bike until you reach some percentage of a bike’s cost, the ski rental problem. If you don’t know whether you are going to get injured or give up, a good rule of thumb is to rent until you reach the cost of the object, then buy it. At most you spend 2x the optimal.
The fit, and why nobody prices it
The stock Contend came with 175mm cranks which were just wrong for my legs. The crank length is how long the pedal arms are. Shorter cranks = less hip impingement and naturally higher cadence which is generally good for most people. Pro-tip: basically all the off-the-shelf bikes will NOT fit long torso or long reach folks well. You can be a short king with a long torso and you'll end up in a medium/large with 175mm cranks half the length of your leg and handlebars wider than your shoulders. So getting a professional fit and buying new cranks/handlebars can make a world of difference.
The power meter pedals
I opened the cart on Assioma pedals about fifteen times before I bought them. Single sided or dual, which model, is the cheaper one accurate enough, should I wait for a sale. I'm a numbers nerd so I really wanted to see power. Looking back, just ride a lot without power and bring the power in later.
If you have an indoor trainer you'll see power numbers anyways. However, if seeing and beating your power bests and analyzing segment data gets you riding, then I say go for it.
Buy a single-sided power meter pedal for $450-500. The dual-sided ones may tell you that you're 48/52% split between left and right leg - interesting, but you'll just go back to riding normally anyways.
The home gym version of the same trap
Strength training = I need to buy a home gym right? At least that is what comes to mind if you're me. A Speediance or similar digital cable machine can theoretically do everything you need for $2k+. I nearly convinced myself to buy one but decided to buy a wooden platform and bands first, just to see if I could stick with it.
| Platform + bands | Digital home gym | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | ~$100 | $2,000+ |
| Covers a 15-minute strength session | Completely | Completely |
| Progressive load tracking | No | Yes, and it is good |
| Useful if you stop after six weeks | You are out $100 | It becomes furniture |
| Actually gets used | If it is in the room | Same, oddly |
The honest split is the same as everywhere else on this page: the expensive one measures better, and measuring only pays once you are consistently doing the thing. If you have done twice-weekly strength for six months and want progressive load without a gym membership, the machine is a reasonable purchase. If you are buying it to start, you are buying a very sophisticated way of feeling like you have started.
The upgrade itch, specifically
You know the bug. I start looking at better bikes, and it is the only thing I can do. The first time I went up Mandeville I did it on flat pedals on a bike that did not fit me and it took about seven minutes longer than it does now, and almost none of that difference came from equipment - it came from the fit, and then from a winter of just riding.
The thing that actually stopped me impulse buying was probably setting a gate instead of a date. 4.0 W/kg, and then I could have the nice bike. This held me back for a few months but I was still looking at new bikes every day. One thing to note: I've heard from reliable sources that top carbon bikes have marginal differences between them.
For the record, the frames I researched and did not buy: Ostro VAM, Aethos 2, SuperSix Evo Gen 5, Winspace Agile and C5, the Quick Pro AR:ONE, ER:ONE and UR:ONE, ENVE Melee, ENVE Fray. That was months of open tabs and I don't think a single one of them made anybody faster. I looked hard at Chinese carbon too and it's genuinely good value now, and I've heard great things from friends who work at top-tier bike shops about the ER:ONE (the UR:ONE hadn't been released yet). But I decided to optimize for Western brand name service, giving my bike shop buddies a solid sale, and resale value from a strong Western brand in case I broke my other wrist (see my wrist breaking story).
So was starting on aluminum the right move?
Yes, it was good to start out with the Giant Contend, and no, it won't slow you down much at all. There is a great GCN video about how many watts a kilo is actually worth and the answer is not as much as you think really, so sorry not sorry to all those weight weenies.
But also modern carbon bikes have hydraulic disc brakes, wider tires and more compliance and shock absorption. I literally think my carbon bike has saved me on descents, my main Achilles heel given how little cycling experience I had previously. So if it stops you from going off a cliff and dying then yes, include that in your calculus heavily.
There are only marginal differences between top carbon bikes though, and that is the part worth being clear about. Going from aluminum with rim brakes to a fitted top-tier carbon bike is a huge leap. The next leap, to a slightly more expensive fitted top-tier carbon bike, is incremental at best.
If you're in the loop right now
Go back to test 01 and run the counter for a week. If it comes back at zero, you did not want the thing, you wanted an afternoon of reading about it - and there is nothing wrong with that as long as you call it what it is. If it comes back at five, buy it. It also helps to know what actually wears out, since that's the real recurring cost - chain every 1,500 to 2,000 miles, cassette every two or three chains, tires every 2,000 to 3,000. Aluminum frames probably outlive your interest in them.