Sunday, July 16, 2006

after I went the last time to lake berryessa and looked at all these guys riding there bikes down the mountains and up again I decided maybe its time that I finally doing something for me and my body and start biking again. Problem you need a bike.

I was thinking how to afford this, cause like always I have many dreams and can't afford to buy everything like:

  • nice stereo system
  • a surfboard with 140 liters
  • a bike
  • a new car
  • vacation

as we can see thats its quite a nice list. So I was thinking what makes the most sense, I would love to buy a surfboard, but for a matter of fact I can't afford to go more then 2/3 times a month surfing and my board what I just bought (115 liters) is nice, but its barley windy enough, So I delayed this another year.

  • A stereo system, is not really neccessaery and I already spend way to much time in the flat...
  • vacation, yeah nice, but on the other hand I'm in california and there is much left where I can go, specially arround davis/tahoe/yosemite
  • A new car, very nice but my car works and drives me everywhere and gas gets more and more expensive. So for the next 6 Month it should be fine, once I fix the left bearing and my airconditioner (fan broken)
  • A bike, its actually the only thing where I can save money, can do something with my girlfriend arround davis (once I fixed here bike, or we get her a new one). And if I ride it everyday to work, I would save arround 150$ a month.
Finally I decided a nice bike ( should last over 5 years, so no walmarkt stuff) would be great. Problem what kind and how do I get one in my size.

There a basicly 5 kindes of bikes out there

Because I want a daily driver I can't get a
  • bmx (way to small and I'm not into this making crazy tricks)
  • mountin bike (when do I get into the mountains offroading and way to heavy)
  • hybrid (I don't like 50/50 things and they look ugly)
So we are left with cruisers (cheap,slow,heavy arround 500$) and roadbikes (expensive,fast,light to medium weight, starts at 700$)

Cause I like it fast and my dad always talked me into getting light things (like shoes and so) I decided to get a roadbike and my banking account hates me for this.

After I reasearched in the web for a couple of days and came to this list:
  • minimum shimano 105 shifiting system, better ultegra
  • click pedall system instead of strapes
  • shoes
  • helmet
  • computer
  • lights
  • combination of carbon and aluminium frame
  • the softes saddle possible
  • under 10 kg
  • changeable cranks
  • at least 60 cm frame size ( I'm between 60 and 63)
During the shopping I talked to another salesperson, and he offered me a membership in a bike club, what means I get on everything I buy in this shob 10% of for 20$ a year. A second later I accepted and have now a club card with enough money on it to reach my magic goal to afford this bike...

what I got ( got an end of summer deal after long fighting with the salesperson) :
  • combination of ultegra and 105 shifting system
  • forte clicks, looks pedals where to expensive, forte a based on the look design
  • shimano shoes
  • carbon fork
  • Aluminum Frame with Carbon Seat Stays
  • 8.53 kg heavy
  • simple computer, not wounderfull does the job
  • a bottle and a holders
after I was able to setup the clicks and figured out how to get out them again ( I'm glad I practiced where somebody could hold me) I went 5 miles and stopped at the next shop and got:
  • a lock, cause kinda sucks if you need to go somewhere like a store to grab some foot
  • some shorts, my butt hurts and I was way to warm in the pants I had one
whats still missing are:
  • a trikot, cause you sweat terrible in the shirt I use right now
  • a helmet, top priority, will buy it in the next week or as soon as I go into the mountains. I wanted to buy one at the shop, but could'nt get a fitting one.
  • a larger crank once I get used to this bike, cause the front crank is a little bit to small for me. I will by it in a couple of month, once I reach the maximum and are in good enough condition to actually use it
  • lights, I'm not going to buy some, cause the tires are so thin, if you miss one hole in the street you need a new tire. So no biking in the dark
  • i need a permit to ride this bike on campus, what I refuse to buy, cause I'm not putting an ugly sticker on my bike
  • a small wais bag, cause this stupid pants have no pockets for keys and so
  • a second bottle holder with a bottle for obvious reason
  • an ipod nano with wrist holder so I can enjoy music during the ride
  • a stand to put the bike into the flat
  • a couple of spare tubes in case of a flat tire
  • contacts, cause with my glasses its kinda anoying to bike in this racing position
I think I will get this over the next couple of month and finally try to save some money. For vacations next year.

...now my girlfriend only needs a bike so we can make tours...