Two wheels, no engine.

Everyone should own at least one perfect thing, especially these days when the rest of life can be so far from it. I still can’t quite swing the Ducati 1098R or a 4500 square-foot mansionette adjacent to Laguna Seca to park it in, but that’s okay. I ride motorcycles for a living, so it’s nice to wrap my head around something entirely different, but weirdly similar. You might be surprised to learn how many of us have gear bag full of spandex next to all the leather stuff. Just ask Ben Spies. A few years back during a little professional detour writing advertising copy, I found myself with chunk of disposable income. I didn’t need another motorcycle. It wasn't enough dough to pay for anything with an engine I really wanted anyway. Fortunately, my local bicycle pro shop was more than willing to help. The old steel Eddy Merckx wasn’t getting any younger. I could recite selections from the dog-eared Serotta catalog that had been riding around in my Aerostich bag for months. Life is short, and if I waited much longer, something more practical and less enjoyable would absorb my little slush fund anyway. A new head for my ancient Toyota pickup, for instance. Denial is not just a river in Egypt. So after recruiting my friend Pozorski to deter spurious fits of common sense, I grabbed my checkbook.

The vision in titanium and orange Imron wasn’t as extravagant as it could have been. Substituting strategic of Campagnolo Chorus bits for their pricier Record brethren keep me from passing out at the sight of a bottom line that would’ve covered a spanky new motocross bike. Pozorski had done exactly as I’d asked, helping me strike a balance between compromise and madness. It was, and still is, perfect. Not for Alberto Contador or Thor Hushovd or Franco Pellizotti. For me, it’s the only way to maintain the physical/psychological conditioning you need to do this job. You’re looking at the one thing in my garage that with no apologies to make for what might have been, and it’s not shy about reminding me every time I clip in.