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" Why would anyone spend more than $6000 on a bicycle? That&amp;#039;s a bit like asking why someone would spend $150,000 on a car. No one needs to spend this kind of money to get from one place or another. But, apparently there are some people who care more about how they get somewhere\u2014fast, and very much in style\u2014than where they&amp;#039;re going. So when the folks at Guru bicycles offered to build one of their carbon-fiber Maestro bikes, customized to my particular dimensions, and let me borrow it for a few weeks, I jumped at the chance. Guru is a cutting-edge bike maker in Quebec, Canada, building custom bikes for triathletes and other competitive road riders (I&amp;#039;ve been a pretty hard-core mountain biker for years, but I&amp;#039;m still a dabbler when it comes to serious road riding), and the Maestro is the Lamborghini of the bicycle world.  The process of buying a custom bike is a little like being fitted for a suit. I started at New York&amp;#039;s Signature Cycles where the owner, Paul Levine, put me through a detailed physical assessment that included checking my joint mobility and other key metrics. Then he put me on a stationary bike that can be adjusted in all dimensions. While I pedaled, a computer measured my power output, cadence and overall efficiency. After a series of small adjustments to the frame, seat, and handlebars Paul had me in the optimal zone. Then the measurements went off to Guru. In high-end bicycles, just as in the world of exotic sports cars, boosting performance is all about shaving weight. And bike makers do it the same way carmakers do, by turning to exotic materials such as titanium and carbon fiber. There are a number of outfits that make excellent custom bicycles\u2014including some that combine carbon fiber with other materials\u2014but as far as I know, Guru is the only company that makes an all carbon-fiber custom bike frame. (They also make bikes out of more humble materials as well.)  The Maestro arrived a couple of weeks later. It is a thing of beauty\u2014sleek and aerodynamic. And thanks to the carbon fiber and some very nice components, it is by far the lightest bike I&amp;#039;ve ever ridden, at just over 15 pounds.  It&amp;#039;s hard to describe how light that is. When you get into the saddle, you feel as though the bike is barely there. Two or three good pedal strokes later and you&amp;#039;re sailing along at 20 mph.  I had a great chance to put the bike through its paces just a few days after I picked it up: the annual Montauk Century, a 100-mile group ride from central Long Island out to the tip of the island. As I said, I&amp;#039;m not that much of a road rider, but I&amp;#039;ve done two centuries before, and the Montauk ride is a classic.  I rode with three other riders from my town, all fairly experienced distance cyclers. I was hoping I could keep up\u2014no matter how light the bike, it doesn&amp;#039;t make up for lack of conditioning.  We set off on an absolutely gorgeous Sunday morning, riding east, which put a pleasant tail wind at our backs. Usually on a long ride like this your body starts to pay for any slight imperfections in the fit of your bike: Your hands or feet might go numb, your back starts to ache. I felt none of that on the Maestro. We spooled out the miles at a steady 18-20 mph clip, telling ourselves at each of the three rest stops that we couldn&amp;#039;t possibly keep up this pace (on my previous century rides, I&amp;#039;d averaged well under 15 mph.) But when we finished in the mid-afternoon our average speed (not including rest stops) was a solid 18.3 mph. The tail wind helped\u2014and, in my case, so did the Maestro.  Guru needs the bike back, and I&amp;#039;ll miss it in the same way all of us at PM miss a particularly cool long-term test car when it&amp;#039;s time to give it back. But I do understand why some people might spend as much as the price of a used car to own a piece of technology this beautiful (the next day I wasn&amp;#039;t the least bit sore, a testament to the improvement a good fit makes). But I&amp;#039;m not one of those people, and I don&amp;#039;t do enough of this kind of riding to do justice to the Maestro&amp;#039;s expert craftsmanship. But it sure was a nice ride while it lasted.\u2014Jim Meigs The Maestro 400: A carbon fiber work of art. The author, ready to see how the Guru holds up to the 100-mile Montauk Century ride. Photos by David Goldfarb So far so good. After 50 miles both bike and rider seem to be staying in one piece. The end of the line.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/a4844/2921791/>