Several weeks back, when I was first starting to talk to my father about going home for Christmas, I mentioned to him that I had started cycling. Unlike everyone else in my family (and most of my friends), he didn’t give me the “Have you lost your mind?” speech. Instead, he started getting excited and asking me all kinds of questions about it.
My father has been a runner for most of his adult life. He used to run in several marathons a year and has continued running up to now. He has had a lot of injuries along the way though including a completely blown Achilles tendon that had to be surgically rebuilt. Since that surgery, his running has never been the same. Today, he can’t even run on roads any longer and is running solely on treadmills. Even that is starting to cause him some problems.
Back when I was in high school, he started cycling for a while. As it turns out, it seems that he has been thinking about getting back into cycling as a means for exercise and was excited to hear I was doing it. I was equally excited to hear he is interested. All of my life, my father and I have rarely, if ever, shared a common interest which means we honestly haven’t spent much time together. In the “better late than never” line of thinking, it is my hope that he can get as excited about cycling as I am because I would love to be able to share this with him. That is one of the reasons why the icy conditions disappointed me. True, I was looking forward to riding the canyon, but the main reason for me wanting to take my bike home was so that he could see it and ride it around a bit.
The drive home was an exercise in uncontrolled terror. From the second I pulled out of my parking spot, I was out of control. I could only make a top speed of 20 mph before my back end started fish-tailing all over the place. The total trip from here to my father’s house is just under 200 miles. It looked like I would be in for a long day.
I reached the only actual city between here and there (there are a number of smaller towns, but blink even at 20 mph and you will miss them) after 3 and a half hours… a trip that generally takes about 45 minutes. While I was there, I called home to let everyone know that I was on my way but that there was no telling how long this was going to take.
Oddly enough, about 5 miles outside that city, the roads were perfect.
That drive encompasses 4 counties in the Texas panhandle. The highway departments for the last 2 counties apparently had a moment where they thought, “You know, it is our job to work on these roads. Considering all the holiday traffic, we might want to do something about these conditions.” After having that thought, they got out and treated the roads so that the ice melted. They then swept the water away so that it wouldn’t re-freeze and treated the highway to prevent the freezing of any water left behind.
I couldn’t believe it either.
The other 2 counties apparently decided, “Piss on that” and simply left things as they were. Even when I drove back yesterday, the highway from that city back to my apartment were still in terrible shape.
On Saturday, I got up and told my dad that I was going to go visit the 2 bike shops in town. One shop was known to me… and I didn’t like it. The owner is a jerk and has always had 1 concern and 1 concern only… making the sale. I don’t have a problem with that necessarily as he is in business to make money, but you don’t get that whole atmosphere that you get at a typical bike shop. Once they realize that you are simply there to look and gather information, you become a problem for them and all they want is for you to leave. They make no bones about making you aware that you are unwelcome. I wouldn’t have gone there at all because traditionally they have only carried crap, but a quick search of the yellow pages revealed that they now deal in Specialized, Trek, and Felt bikes. It would be worth a visit anyway.
The second shop was unknown to me. It wasn’t even there when I moved away 3 years back. I was really excited about hitting that shop as they carry bikes that I can’t get here. Between the various bike shops in this town, I had all of those other 3 brands covered, but this second shop carried Cannondale and Kona. I’ve read about those and seen them in magazines, but never ridden one.
We set out and disappointment struck again. The Cannondale and Kona shop was closed and wouldn’t re-open until today… and I’m no longer there. Reluctantly, we set off for the other store.
We got the service that I had come to expect from that store… annoyance that we weren’t buying right that second and a general disdain for our presence in the store. They had some really nice bikes though. There was one in particular that planted a tickle into the back of my head, but it wouldn’t be until several hours later that all the pieces would fall into place. Back at my father’s house, as I was playing a game of cards with my sister, it finally registered. “Was that really a Trek Madone 5.9? Was it really marked at $500??? Isn’t that missing another zero?”
I got back into my truck and headed back. All my distaste for that store was forgotten. I figured that if I could score a deal like that, I could play nice for a bit.
I pulled up, dashed in the door, walked straight to the bike, and confirmed… Trek Madone 5.9… $500. I pointed at the bike frantically, spun my head around to make sure I had the attention of the nearest sales associate, and cried, “GIMMEE!!!”
He walked up with a smile, started to take the bike off the rack, got a puzzled look on his face, and said, “Wait a second. That’s not right.” He tugged on the price tag for a second and we both saw that the tag was tangled with another one. When he freed it up, the $500 price tag fell against the Mongoose sitting next to it and the price of $4300 was revealed for the Madone. He smiled back at me smugly as if we had entered into some legally binding verbal agreement and continued to take the bike down from the stand. By the time he had it freed and turned around to speak to me, I was back in my truck and halfway home again.
I am determined to buy a road bike in the next couple of days though. I am on vacation until the 4th and have nothing but time to go around and visit all the local shops again. I might even return home to visit that other shop and see what they have available. I would love to be able to buy a really nice $4000-$5000 bike, but that simply isn’t in my budget. I’m going to have to either find a great deal on an ’09 or buy a lesser bike and slowly build it up over time. For now, I simply want a bike that won’t self-destruct under me and that I can get some good miles from. Trail riding will still remain my choice, so I’m saving the heart-clutching-short-of-breath-fear-of-death expensive purchase for my next mountain bike.
Oh, and a quick update. Last week, I said that I was starting a series of short-term goals to try to lose weight. I set a 2-week goal (which ends on January 3) of 5 pounds. When I first decided on that, I weighed in at 247.5. As of this morning, 1 week later, I am at 244… and I haven’t done anything at all except be very conscious about what I put in my mouth. With the travel, snow, and travel prep, I haven’t had time to do any exercising, so that 3.5 pounds was all in how and what I ate. This week, while I’m on vacation, I intend to hit the gym every day and do some riding every day. I am also trying out some new food choices, so I am fairly excited to check the scale again next Monday morning and see where things stand then.
