So, over Memorial Day weekend I went bike shopping. Talk about choices. I started at Champaign Cycle. They carry Trek’s, Gary Fisher’s, and Klein’s. The guy that I initially talked to was very helpful. He asked what I was going to use the bike for, and then, amazingly enough, started me off on the cheapest bikes. I told him how much I was looking to spend, and then he brought me around to those. Unfortunately Saturdays (especially good weather weekends), are probably the busiest days for bike shops. Needless to say, the guy that initially started helping me got bogged down with another customer as I took out the Trek 8000 for a ride. I then asked the other guy what exactly going to the 8500 got me. Obviously the components change, but how much does that really change the feel of the bike? So, he told me to go for a ride on it and see. For one, shifting was obviously smoother. Granted, if I took it someplace other than a sidewalk, I could probably tell more of a difference, but the shifting alone was enough. Now, as nice as the shifting was, it was priced a little more than I wanted to spend.
I told them I’d have to think about it, and then headed over to Durst Cycle. Now, they sell Cannondale’s, Schwinn’s, and Giant’s. So, I head in, and the place is packed. It takes me forever to get any help over by the Cannondales. Finally, after 10-20 minutes of standing around, a guy helps me out. I tell him about how much I want to spend, what some of the components are on the Trek I’m looking at, and he points me to the Cannondale F600 and the Giant XTC 1. The Cannondale felt like a good bike, comparable to the Trek. However the Giant felt cheap and flimsy. They didn’t have any of the F600’s in stock in my size and color. So, the sales guy took down my name and number and said he’d call Cannondale on Tuesday and then let me know (also on Tuesday).
So now I take about 30 minutes to cool off on the bike browsing and head over to a friends and ride his Cannondale with him. It’s a nice bike, nothing to complain about. The bike of his that I rode was more of an easy-rider bike than I was looking for. So, I then headed back to Champaign Cycle to talk about upgrading the brakes to disc brakes. The guy gave me some numbers, but told me he wasn’t very informative about what’s good and what’s bad. Instead he said to come by on Tuesday and talk to Brandon about them.
Tuesday rolls around, and I head in to talk to Brandon about disc brakes over my lunch hour. He gives me the general low down, and then I did some of my own research. I didn’t want to say yay or nay to them because I was still waiting to hear back from Durst.
Needless to say I didn’t hear back from Durst. Talk about crappy service. Granted I’m not laying down huge amounts of money, but still nothing to sneeze about. So, today after still not hearing back from Durst, I again went in to Champaign Cycle during my lunch hour and ordered my bike. Unfortunately they don’t have the 2004 Trek 8000 in my size in stock, so I need to wait a few more days. They did, however, have the 2003 version in my size in stock. I elected not to grab that one because it was only discounted $50 and it doesn’t have the necessary hubs and wheels to upgrade to disc brakes in the future.
I’m so excited for it to come.