the tao of cycling: shopping around

Friday, February 6, 2009

shopping around

I test rode a new bike this morning.
I felt almost guilty, a little disloyal, for even thinking about a different bike.
my cannondale has been my friend for 28 beautiful months, and has put up with a great deal of questionable behavior on my part during that time. can I truly cast it aside someday?
this is my dilemma.
I am a pretty loyal person, have always been. perhaps it goes hand in hand with the commitment thing: I'm not flighty, I don't jump ship easily, and I tend to stick with things that treat me well in return.
but I also like change. I like newness, I like variety, I often crave new experiences and modifications to what already exists.
therein lies the rub . . .

what is it that tips us over the edge from one way of doing things, to another?
it must be the result of a cost-benefit analysis; that's the only logical answer, right?
we assess what's good and bad about our current situation, then predict what will happen if we were to make the change. what will we give up, and what will we gain? and what will the cost be, financial or otherwise?
we weigh those options, and then --- if you're me --- you close your eyes and jump.

this is how I bought my cannondale 28 months ago. I took a good look at how much I was riding, what kind of riding it was, and what the riding was doing for me physically and emotionally. then I considered what I would lose: mainly the comfort level I had with my current bike and how it operated, and a chunk of cash.
I weighed, then closed my eyes and jumped.
and have never regretted it.

today as I consider a new bike, I have to think back on the cannondale purchase experience. I was nervous, I was entering a new unknown (to me) world, and it was a serious financial commitment. and I have never, not even for a minute, experienced remorse.

riding this new bike down the street I thought, it will be hard to let my old bike go.
but I think I was wrong.
I believe if I make this new purchase, I will always be glad I did so. I will be just as I have been with the cannondale: never regretting, at all.

however, I am still wobbling. yes, no, yes, no. maybe I should look around more; maybe I want a different color. will it really be that much different and is it worth the investment?

what I know for sure is that pretty soon I will have to close my eyes and jump, one way or the other.

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the Male Ego

The other day I was coming down a canyon in my drop bars (two years ago I would have said, 'what's a drop bar?'), working hard, when I came up on two guys who were also heading downhill but at a more leisurely pace. I passed them, said hello as I did so, and pulled back into the bike lane. a few minutes later they went flying past me, faces looking dead ahead, not a single bit of acknowledgment that I even existed on this planet let alone was involved in and enjoying the same sport they were.
I have to attribute this to the male ego. what else can it be? now I know we all have egos, myself included. and mine even shows its ridiculous little head once in a while, or perhaps more often. but the difference between mine and say, those of certain men on bicycles, is that I KNOW mine exists and I can LAUGH at mine. I know my ego was quite excited to pass those guys, and I could also smile because I knew if the men had really been working like I was, they would have kicked my butt down the hill.
I think I pissed them off.
and I'm sure I will be sharing with you much more of my thoughts about the male ego . . .

a little history

I was married, and I had a mountain bike which I rarely rode. we separated, I moved out, and four months later someone stole my bike. the next spring, 2005, I bought myself a new mountain bike. I rode occasionally, and in april 2006 I rode in my first century, the Cactus Hugger in St. George, Utah. I made it 54 miles on that mountain bike, and it took me about 6 hours. I think that included the rest stops where I prayed that someone would steal my bike again . . .
in june 2006 I started riding my mountain bike five mornings a week, a 45-55 minute loop that was intended to be all about exercise. and what I found was that I loved the quiet, peaceful morning full of bird chatter and barely breaking sunrises. by that fall I was hooked, and began considering the purchase of a road bike. I rode up emigration canyon for the first time that Labor Day of 2006, panting and plowing along on my trusty (heavy) bike, and a month later I was the proud owner of my own road bike: I had become a two-bike girl!
a 17-week-long "power camp" over the winter and a handful of new friends kept bicycling front and center in my life, and when spring of 2007 rolled around I was ready to hit the pavement. I rode my first century the end of april, when I again went to St. George and completed that Cactus Hugger. it took me about 7 hours, but this time I rode the entire 100 miles with about 9300 feet of vertical gain. woo hoo!
I started riding canyons around our area, emigration and millcreek, city creek, big cottonwood, little mountain and big mountain, and once--yes, only once--little cottonwood.
then in september of 2007, I rode from Logan, Utah, to Jackson, Wyoming, in the slightly infamous LOTOJA race. I rode, I did not race. and I completed the thing, crediting my good training buddies, the incredibly perfect weather, my support team, and an amazing convergence of all things positive in the universe.
I put in about 3500 miles last season, and as of today, july 19, 2008, I have about 1700 in, adding to it every day.
I have again signed on to ride the LOTOJA race, and my goal is to have just somewhere near as great a ride as I did last year. oh, and to have someone fun to talk with along the way as I got incredibly bored last year . . . star valley is still a nightmare scene in my biking memories . . .
and here is a picture of the machine that has helped me reclaim my life.