I rode a 1988 Shogun Katana as my daily until 2006. 18 years, and many thousands of kilometers - I honestly don't know how many as we didn't have Strava in the 20th century. I loved this bike. I love it more than I have loved any bike I've owned since.

But I honestly don't think I could go back to Steel. I could probably go back to alloy with carbon forks (My 2006 Avanti Vivace). That bike also lasted 10+ years until I got a crack in the frame.

The Avanti died at an inconvenient time (was moving house), and I had to buy another alloy bike on short notice/a tight budget. That was when I got my first Trek (a 1.2). I liked it, but it only lived for 18 months before I was hit by a car on it in 2019.

I got my current Trek second-hand with the insurance payout. I picked up the Madone second-hand, because I could never justify $6k for a bike. Joke's on me, right? If I spend another $1.5k on it now, I'll have paid nearly $6 for it anyway.