What Happened to the Roubaix and where did the Look 585 come from?

Two weeks ago four of us did a ride from Worcester Park down to Bury Hill (just before Arundel) and back. This a ride of some 90 plus miles. There was M on his Look KG381, My brother C on his Shorter (his Roubaix was in the cycle shop awaiting a new cassette), R on his Lightspeed and me on my Roubaix. We followed the route of the SWRC 100 down to West Sussex.

It was obvious the R and C were a lot stronger than M and I. This was most obvious when we were climbing Bury Hill and they went up the hill as if it was flat.

On the way back R lost a spoke and his wheel went out of true. Fortunately we were in the vicinity of Pulborough station and he was able to get a train home.

I struggled to keep up with M and C the rest of the way.

Once we got home I put my bike out in the back garden leaning up against a table. The wind blew and it fell over, the crossbar striking a stome step. It damaged the carbon. I subsequently took the bike to my local dealer, Corridori cycles in Banstead. They arranged for the bike to go back to Specialized who advised the bike should not be ridden. They have kindly offered to provide me with a replacement frame at a discounted price - now there is customer service. I am now waiting for the replacement frame and the rebuild.

In the meantime I saw a Look 585 for sale on ebay. My friend M has just bought one new. My other friend Big G has a Look 595. The 585 on ebay was secondhand but never ridden. The bidding was low with two hours of the auction to go. I placed a bid and was quickly overbid. I placed another thinking 1. it would be below the reserve price, and 2. I would be overbid as my bid was very low. This was good as I had not got permission from the Finance Committee to make such a purchase.

Two hours later I was the sucessful bidder and my bid had reached the reserve. I was very suspicious as the seller only had one piece of feedback and there are lots of counterfeit bikes around. I contacted the seller and he gave me his story. I googled him and his story checked out. The following Saturday my brother C and I (as the seller lived in his area) went and collcted he bike.

The bike was as described, unused last years colours, and highly spec'd. The seller was in the Cycling business and we hung around talking to him for about an hour.

When my wife got back from being away at her mothers for the weekend I had to fess up and look for retrospective acceptance from the Committee. She took it well saying "I knew you were looking and it had to happen".