I Think I Need a Road Bike

I pretty much watch TV just once a year, really 21 times, all during the first three weeks of July. I can't get enough of the Tour De France but, probably because I don't get a lot of sleep, it puts me out like a cure for insomnia. Cindy paitently waits for me to nod off so she can pry the remote from my hand and watch The Bachelorette. She took this picture to show her friends, my hand still in the remote holding position.

I know this sounds sappy but every Tour I think about buying a road bike or, since the roads are so bad around my house, a cyclocross bike. This week while I was considering how complete my life with be with a new 700 cc wheeled bike, I received the following email from someone in Japan asking if I still had my Bianchi road bike for sale:

Re:Re: 50 cm Bianchi EV2 Dura-Ace/Ultegra $1200 伊藤　博道 to you - 2 days ago

Hi,
Thanks for reply.
I see this bike at

http://www.mombu.com/marketplace/transport/t-50-cm-bianchi-ev2-dura-aceultegra-1200-6178125.html

Thanks,

-- wrote:
>Sorry, I sold it 5 years ago. Where did you see it for sale?
>
>Thank you,
>Neil

I sold this Bianchi 5 years ago so I could buy a cross bike; however, I squandered the money I got for this bike on a mortgage payment or something.

I forgot all about posting an ad for this bike. It is amazing that once you put something on-line, it can float around indefinitely. I wonder if I have unwittingly launched something out into the cyber universe that will come back to bite me squarely on the ass? More than likely.

So I start to obsess over getting a cross bike some more.

I stop by Denny's. He just got a beautiful metallic green Salsa cross bike.

I obsess a little more.

Bill calls me up this morning and shames me into doing a dirt road ride with him and Dan. I try to put my Geax 1.5 slicks on my mountain bike but the tires are dry-rotted. I ride my bike with 2.0 Kenda Karmas on paved roads. It feels like I am riding a tank. Bill and Dan glide effortlessly on 29" skinny tires. I really need a cross bike.

Dan works for a bike shop. One problem with this is we cannot go but 20 miles without someone recognizing him; they pull over and talk bikes. The bigger problem is he is a rolling encyclopedia for all the really cool bicycling stuff out there: Paul center mounted cantilever cross brakes, fixed cogs that mount to the 6 bolt disc bosses...cool stuff I didn't even know I needed until today.

I get home, all worked up into a frenzy. I cannot possibly carry on one more day without a cross bike. I check the mail. The mortgage payment is coming up. I have just 18 years left to pay on my 30 year fixed-rate mortgage. Once the house is paid off, I am going to buy a cross bike. I mean it this time.