I Want to Ride My Bicycle

I Want to Ride My Bicycle
Originally uploaded by oybay

Yesterday, I decided I needed a new bike. Mainly because I've left my current bike outside too long and the metal parts are rusty and the rubber parts are disintegrating.

Mike's Bikes was having their annual sale. I was only back in town for the last day of the sale, so I had to do all my research and shopping in one day only. This caused me some stress until I remembered that all bikes are exactly alike. What this really means is, it doesn't matter what I get because I'll get used to whatever it is after a while. No matter how light or high-performing the bike is, the limiting factor in my ability to get up the hill is still my own fat out-of-shapeness.

I did a little research online, and asked ANT for some tips. I decided that the 2007 CannondaleAdventure 800 shown on Mike's website was pretty interesting, mainly because of the SRAM Dual Drive. I'm still a little unclear on how that works, but basically it means I can have my 24 speeds and yet not have a front dérailleur. One less dérailleur means one less chance to get derailed! That also means I should be able to shift even while stopped at a stop sign, which is apparently something that one is supposed to do at stop signs.

I went down to Mike's Bikes, where a guy named Mike reluctantly agreed to help me out. He tried to pass me off on some other clerk who would have none of it. I'm a terrible shopper, and I guess it shows!

At a bike store I always feel just as bad as most people do at a car dealership. I just know I'm gonna get ripped off because I don't know a wheel from a tire from a tube. But I tested four bikes. I liked the last one best, probably because it is the most similar to the one I already have and am used to. It turned out to also be a Cannondale Adventure, but a different model. The one shown on their website was the only Adventure 800 they had in stock, at a different store. Luckily it was my size.

Though I hate to make snap decisions, I went ahead and decided to go with it sight-unseen, just based on having tested the other Adventure.

Today, I got a call from the store. It turns out that they goofed and had already sold that bike to someone else. But they are going to order one for me and give it to me at the same price. I'm not clear on whether that will be the same 2007 model or the 2008 model (which is now called the Adventure 2). I think he told me on the phone, but I immediately forgot.

Now it will take a few weeks for the order to come in. So I'll have to keep using my old bike 'till then.