Updates: Bootcamp & Bike
Two things:
- Day 2 of Pre-Hockey Bootcamp was much easier than Day 1. That is to say, it still kicked my ass, but slightly less so than Day 1. Also, I discovered that I am super kickass at skipping. On Day 1 we did our skipping on the grass and I wasn’t very good at it. Yesterday, we skipped on pavement and I was super duper fast and barely tripped up at all when I was doing the skipping1. I may or may not have rewarded myself for surviving Day 2 with a nice, cold beer.
- After deciding that I did, in fact, want to buy a hybrid bike2, I discovered that I can’t fit hybrid bikes in the trunk of my car. At least not the three that I tried at the shop yesterday3. The handlebars are just a bit too wide and it makes it so that I can’t fit the bike, even with both tires taken off, fully into my trunk. We even tried taking the seat off one of them, but it still wouldn’t fit. And I really don’t want to have to disassemble my entire bike every time I bring it somewhere. Two of the bike shop guys even suggested (independently of each other) that I could just leave the top part of my hatchback open with the bike sticking out a bit, but I live in freaking Vancouver, where it rains 13 months a year, so I nixed that idea immediately. I’m going to go out to a few other bike shops on Sunday to look at brands that they didn’t carry at Dunbar Cycle (e.g., Kona and Trek – as well as MEC has its own line of bikes), but I may, just may, have to go for a road bike instead. It wouldn’t be the end of the world, because I really did like the feel of the Giant Avail!
- I’m sure this will come as a major surprise to Sarah, who I’m sure remembers the pathetic display of uncoordination that was me trying to skip in grade 9 gym class! [↩]
- For all the reasons mentioned by commenters on my previous post about buying a bike [↩]
- The Norco Indie 2, the Devinci Stockholm, and the Giant Seek [↩]
Comments |8|
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I’m not convinced not wanting to spend the money on a bike rack is a very good reason to get a bike you don’t really want (especially when people MUCH more in the know than me have all said hybrid). You have a big girl job now and this is obviously something you are invested in and not something you will abandon in 2 months. I know this is probably shocking to you given your frugality but $1000 is not very much money when you make the kind of money you do (certainly not to spend on something you are very committed to, as opposed to frivolous things, like, oh, shoes *grin*) and let’s face it, you will save that in gas over a larger car in like… 2 weeks at the rate gas prices are going. It’s not like you’re talking about wasting $1000 in a casino–it would be a good investment.
Frugality is all well and good but when you start buying what’s cheaper rather than what you really want (and what is best-suited to what you want it for) simply to be frugal and not out of a need to be frugal… well, I will just bring up the case of my mum, who worried her entire life she wouldn’t have enough to retire on and then died 5 years before she would have ever thought of retiring. I’m not saying you need to go crazy and start ordering caviar and Dom Pérignon but, as I mentioned, it’s not like we’re talking about impulse buying on things you won’t have anything to show for.
That being said, I wanted to note that back in the day (i.e. in my childhood), there were about 3 kinds of bikes: a 3-gear, a mountain bike, and a road bike. One quick perusal of the wikipedia page on hybrid bikes and their various subtypes and I just want to shoot myself.
Have you checked out how well ‘cheap’ bike racks work on your car? Like the ones that you just take on and off when you need it?
@Rachel – From what I’ve read on Smart car forums online, those cheap bike racks don’t fit at all, since they are designed for normal cars and they have nowhere to attach to the Smart’s weird shape. But I haven’t actually tried one, so it might be worth at least looking at.
@Kalev – You make it sound like I don’t like the road bike at all, which isn’t true. As I said at the end of the posting, I really liked the feel of the Giant Avail road bike. In fact, I liked it the most of any of the bikes I test rode, but was planning to be more practical given that everyone I talked to pointed out that hybrids are better when the conditions get less ideal (e.g., better in the rain, better when the roads you are driving on aren’t as smooth) and if you want to have a rack and panniers.
As for the money, $1000 *is* a lot of money and spending $1000 for something that carries around a bike that’s worth less than that is not, in my opinion, a good investment, especially when there is a better solution (i.e., buy the bike that fits in the trunk). And I’m not being frugal, as you suggest, just for the sake of being frugal. $1000 I don’t spend on a bike rack is $1000 I can put towards my student loans, which is thus $1000 closer to freedom from that albatross around my neck and one month closer to when I will finally move out of Surrey and back to Vancouver where I belong. And it’s not like I don’t spend any money on myself either – I mean, I’m buying a bike that’s going to cost me in the $1000 and I’m dropping $4000 on out of my own pocket on my braces, for example. I just think those those are worth the money (and the consequent extra time I’ll end up in exile in Surrey), whereas $1000 for a bike rack is insane.
Before I saw the footnote, I totally thought of grade 9 gym and skipping. In truth, I never really understood why you had problems with it back then, so am glad to see that you’ve mastered skipping. Go Beth!
FWIW – I am like you with respect to frugality. Just because I CAN afford to drop $1000 for a bike rack on my car (or the Sarah-version of same) doesn’t mean that it’s worth it to me. It’s a value-for-money thing. It would gall me to spend $1k for something when there’s a reasonable work around. It’s the principle!
I had no idea bike racks were so damned expensive! That’s crazy. Thankfully, not being a driver, I don’t have to worry about such things. Granted, if I had known they cost as much as they do, I might have decided to invest more in my bike (because I could have convinced myself that I had just ‘saved’ $1000 by not buying a bike rack, so could afford to buy a better bike). More likely though, I would have put the ‘saved’ $1000 aside for a trip. I’m partial to trips.
Anyway, it sucks that the hybrid doesn’t fit in the trunk though. Did you check out the pinkbike website I sent? They might have used bike racks for sale.
Also, when next I visit – I’m definitely going to rent a bike so we can do a run/bike/yoga adventure. I’m thinking run/bike/yoga by the ocean. With plank shots, jump shots, perhaps a bottle of wine, chocolate, and other energy giving foods of the gods.
@Dan – Oh, normal bike racks are not nearly that expensive. The problem is that normal bike racks don’t appear to fit on Smart cars because of their weird shape, so you have to get one installed. If you go through the dealership to get the official Smart car one installed, it costs $1000, as apparently they have to take the back of your car apart to get it one, so it’s like 3 hours labour on top of the expensive rack. I’ve managed to find one after-market rack that can you install pretty easily onto a Smart car, but even it costs $600!
Also, I *totally* love your bike renting plan for the next time you visit! w00t!
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