I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight.
My new Airborne Zeppelin is close…
Your bike arrived today at about 4:30
Johnny assembled it and I took a 3 mile test drive to make sure it was okay you are going to love it…….sweet……. You can pick it up Tuesday
How do I know it’s for real this time? It’s supposed to thunderstorm all week.
…
sigh
Bike bicycle, road bike, bike. Bike Titanium bike Airborne bike Zeppelin bike.
I’m so bike freaking bike bike distracted.
Bike new bike.
I’m totally jinxing its delivery.
Update:
Yup, totally jinxed.
ooooops I screwed up a bike did arrice today but it was not your bike…
It was a 58 ValkyrieI called the boys and your is still in production..not expected to ship until monday..sorrry
I’m dying over here.
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.
It’s good to have friends with different toys.
I rode a dirt bike for the first time today. Its similarity to a motorcycle, which I associate with suicide, made the thought of trying it out in the nearby field intimidating, but my curiosity got the best of me.
This was nothing like riding my mountain bike, except for having two wheels and changing gears. It felt odd to be on a bike so heavy, with a clutch on the left hand where I’m used to a front brake and the front brake on the right where I’m used to a rear brake. Gears shift with a pedal on the left, and the right pedal was the rear brake. The right hand grip twisted for throttle. It took some instruction to get me moving (stopping was easy, staying standing with a heavy bike less so), but after 5 minutes I was comfortable, providing I remained in the soft empty field. Balancing was as easy with any bike, and the shifting felt barely different than with driving, which made the dirt bike mechanics almost natural after a few circles in the field. It wasn’t long before I was increasing my speed to find out how much faster I could go.
We just got back from the toy store and I have my new CamelBak Rocket.
After solving it’s expandable secrets, it’s its (please don’t shoot me, grammar nazi) decidedly the best combination of water/stuff storage with the most ventilation.
I’m testing it out right now, and despite my lovely wife’s mocking, I’ll probably leave it on while I’m doing some house cleaning in preparation for guests – I don’t want to dehydrate during all that hard work.