Make room for the Beefeater

There's a new horse in the corral. After shopping for a backup for the trip, I came across an unlikely candidate in a Raleigh M50 DX. I've been looking at bigger names, like Trek, Specialized and Giant, but this bike was head and shoulders above the others, component-wise. Beefeater Red, Hayes disc brakes (not top of the line, but close), heavy, durable, independent components (these days, you often see shifters and brakes combined into one unit - this is a pain if you want to replace only one of these units), and the frame geometry is different. Most non-road bicycles are measured in odd inches, 17, 19, 21. This is a 20" bike, and fits me pretty snug.

The rigid fork is on order to replace the shocks in the front, as are some road-friendly tires, and a 48/38/28-tooth crankset is in the mail to give the bike more gears as I make my way toward Dallas. The Trip is now looking even more fun, with two solid bikes and fewer worries.