On a Cloudy Day

On a day like today it's a perfect time to do follow up on things I've promised to tell you. You know what I mean, when I say in the post 'but I'll tell you about that later' or 'don't let me forget to tell you about that later.' Either way--it's later now.
The Tarmac SL2 is by far the coolest bike I've owned. It's also, coincidentally, the most expensive. And the best part is that it didn't cost me even close to MSRP because I got it as a crash replacement. For those of you who aren't familiar with crash replacement, it's like free insurance that you get when you buy a new bike at an LBS. Some of you will argue that you get the same coverage if you buy from the internet. I haven't had that experience.

Regardless, crash replacement is offered by the manufacturer. If you buy a bike from, say, Specialized and you crash and compromise the frame, the shop will strip all your parts off the frame, send the frame in, and you pay 40% off the cost of a new frame. The details may be more or less true depending on which company you buy from and which LBS you're looking for (another reason not to shop a bike by price, but by service--my LBS is awesome!).

Now some of you are scratching your heads and saying "Didn't you have a Diamondback before?" Answer: Yes. This is what I mean about having an awesome LBS. DB stopped making frames the year I bought mine, so there was no way to process the old crash replacement. So instead the warranty manager at my LBS (who is amazing as well) spent HOURS on the phone for me with other manufacturers until he found one that came through for us. I picked out the frame, Specialized shipped it to the shop, they built it up, and I spent HALF of what I might have spent otherwise.

Not to go on a roll here praising Specialized, but I found out that they allow you to race on the frames and still get a crash replacement. This isn't true of all manufacturers. Some of them require you to purchase additional race insurance in order to still get the coverage.

Lesson learned? I'll repeat it--don't shop a bike by price. You'll regret it. The money that LBSs make on the bikes goes toward hiring people to provide you with service. You cut the price, someone gets fired, everyone gets stressed, you have a miserable experience getting your bike serviced down the road.

Just throwing that out there.

So now I'm rocking the SL2 and loving it. The geometry is a little stretched for me over the top tube. Initially while sizing it I ran a pretty high stack height, but I've settled for a less aggressive stem to avoid compromising the fork. It is light, responsive, not overly stiff and the matte black paint job makes it look incredible in a line-up of carbon bikes.

Check it out.