Farewell to my Kinesis TK3

All of my bikes are always for sale and not long ago one of my friends who’d been casting admiring glances at my TK3 asked to take it for a test ride. The test ride was a tough one at just under 60km with plenty of climbing at a brisk pace. My friend Phil, thoroughly enjoyed the ride and the bike and after some discussion he asked if I would be interested in selling it. The answer was a yes and not through any dissatisfaction with the bike – purely because my bikes are always for sale if the price works for both parties.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the TK3 and will definitely miss it. I cleaned it all up (it’s only 6 months old, so that wasn’t a big challenge), checked it all over and Phil’s come over and collected it today. In the time I had it, it was a lively, enthusiastic and thoroughly enjoyable companion. I will miss it.

The exciting thing about selling a bike however – is thinking about the replacement.

How do I top the TK3?

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been thinking through options and have now placed an order for a new frameset. I’ve also started ordering components for the new build.

I’m working my budget hard, shopping around, considering which components I can reduce spec and costs on and which I can’t and I’m already pretty excited about what’s coming together. I’ll save that for another post though.

For now, it’s a good bye to the excellent Kinesis TK3, it’s featured very prominently in my riding through the winter on my Instagram feed, my Facebook page and on the blog – all for good reason – it’s a great frameset and I know it’s going to give Phil many years of excellent service. Phil also wanted to take my Mavic Ksyrium SLs off my hands as well and I’m sorry to see these go too. They’ve been great wheels – light, fast and utterly dependable. They work well on the TK3 too. Selling my Mavics has helped my replacement budget somewhat but I will miss them too as I’ve really enjoyed them. I’m honestly not sure what I’d replace them with off the top of my head.