My daily rider is a sixteen year old road bike that still rides quite nicely. I can climb the hills where I live, I descend with confidence, it goes fast enough, it mostly brakes good enough as well, and I can spend all day in the saddle. What more could I want in a bike? I think it retailed for around $2000 new, with a little extra spent to upgrade the wheels.

Over the past few years, I’ve demoed some really nice bikes that retail for upwards of $10,000. These bikes ride like magic carpets. They float up hills, my hands don’t hurt after long braking on some technical descents, and the shifting feels as crisp as a Pringles chip. I feel like I can ride forever on these bikes.

That’s more than I’ll ever spend on a bike, but I’m looking at more reasonable options. Alchemy Bikes, for example, just announced a dramatic price drop for their Lycos gravel bikes. The base-model (non-Au) price for a Lycos is now just $4999 for the SRAM Rival GX AXS build, which is $2500 less than its initial iteration. Alchemy will be at the Sea Otter Classic 2023 next week so I’ll demo this and other models they have on hand while I’m there. I’ll also ask how they managed this dramatic price drop.

My time is limited, so what else should I try while I’m there? You can find the full list of exhibitors here.