Bike Stuff

 Well, isn't that quite a name. "Waterford Adventure Cycle"  It was named back in the day when the meaning was somewhat different than today. It is a touring bike. So adveturing by travel. Not a gravel or bikepacking adventure.  But conveniently, this is exactly what I was looking for. Why a touring bike The question you may be asking is "why do you want a touring bike?"  Not unreasonable. I just did a tour from Salzburg to Udine on my gravel bike and that worked fine. So, clearly it is possible. But that was 'credit card touring' not carrying sleep systems, shelter, etc. What a touring bike brings to the table is being a bike made specifically for longer days in the saddle, riding as efficiently as can be and carrying up to obscene amounts of cargo. The gravel bike was a bit racier (lower, longer) and was limited to two, smaller panniers or a saddle and frame bag. Fine for clothes, toiletries etc but could not have carried a tent, sleeping bag, cookin...

With the original  Shimano 105 5500 9 speed triple Aluminum-framed, 105 triple road bike  Klein was one of the original makers of aluminum frames using 'oversized' lightweight tubing. Today the proportions look totally normal. But it was avant guard 20+ years ago. In 2002, I'd been riding the Bianchi Nuovo Racing as my road bike but moving down to Menlo Park, road biking became more important than mountain biking and it was time for an upgrade. In early 2003, I found this 2002 model on closeout. In some ways, it was better than the newer ones because it was the last of the Kleins to get the trademark cool paint job. Trek had purchased Klein a few years earlier and they were about to start painting them 'normally' like other Treks.  What is cool about this paint job? It's not just "Plum Crazy" purple (and purple is kinda cool all by itself), but it is a semi-translucent paint with metallic flecks and is color-changing. Huh? Color-changing? Yeah, dependi...