Since wearing myself out last year during road rides on my mountain bike, I knew I wanted to get a road bike. They’re lighter, faster, and would allow me to go farther with less fatigue.

Heather already had one. Hans got one earlier this year. But it wasn’t until Alex found one that I caved.

For months I’ve been randomly watching ads for a good deal on a used bike, and even pricing some new ones, but not until recently was the option real. I convinced Kelly we should spend some of our bonus monies on toys instead of debt, in an unusual role reversal. She came around.

I want something light, quality, and durable; I don’t anticipate getting another for a long time. I would prefer a Titanium bike because I’m used to being rough on my mountain bike, and I get the impression that a Ti road bike would better accomdate my version of being careful with a lighter frame.

But Ti is expensive, and I was recently distracted by a few ads and auctions for some Trek 5200s. They’re pretty OCLV (Optimum Compaction Low Void) carbon fiber frame bikes; light, fast, and good enough for Lance. Despite my concerns of the carbon fiber being more fragile a bike than I should ride, I found a few deals online. (With some help from Hans on one if not both. He’s a bad influence.)

One classified was for a shiny blue bike re-posted a few times that still looked like a great deal. I emailed the seller with a few questions, but received no response. Several frustrating days later, I emailed again and simply asked if the bike was still for sale, and within an hour he responded informing me the bike was just sold.

The bike that held my attention on ebay was the same model and year, but with a lesser grade component set and a different paint job. It also was running for several hundered less than the blue one. Today I saw that price climb as more people bought into the auction as it got closer to ending, but I remained excited all day and spent my time planning my bid sniping strategy. With half an hour left, I successfully posted a small bid to an iPod (also a necessity) to make sure I wasn’t going to find any weird account behavior with the bike auction sniping. But as the close of the auction approached, my doubts of needing this particular bike increased, and the amount of money I wanted to spend on it dropped. Hans had to suffer the majority of my babbling over IM. With a minute left, I finalize the lowered max I wanted to spend, and loaded the bid form. At 30 seconds, I hit submit. I find out I’m not logged in, and am offered the full login form. 20 seconds, I enter username, realize I’m not 100% certain of the password. 15 seconds, f*ck it. Close Browser.

It wasn’t meant to be.

I’m going back to looking for the random deal on a nice Titanium bike before I spend too much for something I have too many doubts over.