Bike Porn

If this photo doesn't get your blood pumping...well, to each his own.

For the uninitiated, it's a Cervelo SLC-SL road bike. Same bike used by Team CSC (which employs one of my favorite riders, Jens Voigt). Really light. Really fast. Really expensive.

I just spent a weekend riding one, courtesy of my friend Don, who collects drool-inducing bikes the way some folks collect fast cars. Don's not a collector, though. He's a rider. Big difference.

For Don, it's not about the thing itself, but about its utility. And this thing does its job. It really does its job.

The Cervelo is amazingly light (you can easily lift the whole bike, even with loaded water bottles, with your index finger), but also very stiff. I had the sensation you get in a powerful car--hit the gas, and it just jumps.

Not that the Cervelo turned me into Jens Voigt, but I definitely felt like a better rider while we tackled the hills of the Palos Verdes Peninsula and the flats along Santa Monica Bay. What I didn't expect is the bike's comfort level--despite its race breeding, it's an easy bike to ride. You're connected to the road, but you don't feel every wrinkle in the pavement.

Of course, this could all be my imagination. When I told my wife about the bike, she (no doubt thinking about the $6,000+ price tag) immediately challenged me: how do you really know it's a better bike? Is it possible that you're swayed by the knowledge that it's a superbike? Would a blind test reveal the same results?

She may be right. But thankfully, you can't blind-taste a bike the way you can coffee or wine. Could I tell the difference between that Cervelo and say, a Scott Addict (another superbike)? Maybe not. But I could sure tell the difference between my trusty old Trek 2100 and that Cervelo.

Even a blind rider could see that.