Are you Gear Obsessed?
If you’re not sure, here are some symptoms to look out for:

1. eye strain from searching the web for hours and hours looking for “the best gear”
2. an unnatural excitement (or high) achieved by finding what you think just may be “the best gear”
3. a false sense of pride when your “find” has been confirmed by others on the web as being “the best gear”
4. “the best gear” becomes highly desirable and the topic of many conversations (often with people that don’t care)
5. huge wallet shrinkage when the prospects of having “the best gear” finally engender an online spending orgy

The reason I bring this up is that I am right in the middle of a new-gear-seeking frenzy and let me tell you, it is exhausting. This is what happens when I start a new thing, hobby or whatever. I research and research, end up wanting this and that, then not wanting this and that and finally buying that instead of this. What it comes down to is actually going out on a tour and becoming educated through trial and error.

Which brings me to the fact that I have never been out on a cycling tour, fully loaded or otherwise. That’s right, never been out. With the website up and everything. Coo-coo. I figure that my trial and error can be your trial and error or something like that.


mmmmmmmm, my new Brooks saddle