A Dangerous Proposition

I finally figured out why my tires kept going flat on my trainer: I had a tear in my tire that had grown bigger over the winter, and was now big enough to pinch the tube when it went over the magnetic roller (I'm very proud to have figured this out all by myself). Something told me that the Target receipt I'd crammed in the tire wasn't going to hold up forever. So yesterday morning I used my first free Saturday since I came down with the flu to go to the bike shop and buy some new tires.

I, like many of you, should not be allowed to walk into a bike shop any more than I should be allowed to walk into a bar on Ladies' Night with a paycheck in my pocket. I picked out the cheapest tires I could find for my smaller-than-standard-sized wheels, knowing that these probably wouldn't be the tires that would be seeing the most competition this year. The bike geek guy easily upsold me several sets of tubes, since I'd gone through about 4 in the past week. And then, as he was ringing me up, I uttered the famous last words, "DO YOU THINK YOU COULD SHOW ME SOME OF YOUR ROAD BIKES?" I would not walk out of the store for another hour and a half.

Actually, to be honest, I really do need a new bike. It really isn't about want. My bike is a Decathalon brand hunk of steel that cost me 350 euros (about $500 at the time), and was worth every penny, but not a cent more. My bike, quite frankly, is the crappiest of entry-level bikes. It is, however, a step up from the too-big 1970's Pugeot that I got for free from someone's back yard that I rode for my first season. (I was given it for free, I didn't steal it.) It doesn't have the shifters on the frame like the Pugeot did, but the gears are pretty finicky and often don't work right. The wheels are smaller than a standard size, which means that I get less distance for each pedal stroke, and the downfork is too short to accommodate a bigger wheel. It weighs in excess of 25lb, which is pretty heavy for such a tiny little thing. And worst of all, where most people's bikes say Trek, Cervélo, Specialized, Bianchi or other such known and respected names, mine says DECATHLON. No, no, I don't want a new bike, I NEED one.

Once I had managed to establish that I wasn't a newbie, and I wasn't going to waste a perfectly good bike if he sold one to me, we really got to talking. I won't bother to bore you with what he told me about carbon fiber, crank sets, frame size vs. fore and aft positioning of the saddle, and other interesting tidbits. Homeboy sure knew how to talk, and every question I asked, I got a 10-minute answer to. I mentioned that I wasn't too worried about minute weight differences, since it was much easier to lose off the engine than off the bike. "And anyway," I said, "I'm so tiny, I'm much lighter than most people anyway." I'd always drawn some solace out of that point, athletically pretty much the only thing I have going for me... or so I thought.
"You should worry about it more than anyone else," he said. I looked at him, dumbfounded. Was he trying to steal my money selling me something I didn't need? "Think about it, you weigh, what? 100 lb?"
Oh pssssshhh. This guy was definitely trying to take advantage of me, but still, that one always works. "More like 130," I said.
"No way. Can't be." I'm wearing loose-fitting jeans and a winter jacket, how can you tell? I thought. "Anyway, think about it, I weigh 175 lb. If I have to push a 25-lb bike, it's only 1/7 of my body weight, but for you, it's a quarter." He had a point, even if for me it was really more like 1/5. "If you lose the weight off your body, then you're going to be dragging an even larger proportion of your body weight, even if your strength-to-weight ratio goes up without the bike." Oh crap, now I'm going to have to have an anorexic bike. Fabulous.

Although it was all interesting, it wasn't really answering my questions about the bottom line. "Well then, how much should I spend on a bike for my ability, my body, and what I want?" I asked. My criterion were:
1) Is it a bike that I'm still going to love in 2 years, when it's no longer new and we're used to each other? I don't love bikes that constantly need parts being replaced.
2) Is it a road bike that I can trick out for time trialing, but can still bring with me up into the mountains? My favorite kind of riding is NOT triathlon-style riding, and I don't want to have to buy two crappy bikes instead of one nice one to fit my needs.
3) Will it look cool? I don't want people to take one look at my bike and think I don't know how to ride anymore.

"Well, where do you want to go in the sport?" he asked.
What? What kind of question was that? I don't know how to answer that. I want to win Kona, no, I want to finish 50 ironmans, no, I want to have fun... I don't know. "What do you mean?" I asked.
"Well, you don't want a tri bike. You said cycling was your strongest event. So why do you do triathlon and not cycling?"
These questions are making me uncomfortable. I don't like it when people ask me questions I don't know how to answer! I know why I'm not just a cyclist:
~I get bored with one sport.
~cycling is really high-maintenance and expensive.
~it's too time consuming. You can't really do an effective 50-minute cycling workout like you can swimming or running.
~it's dangerous. I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket in a sport where your equipment fails you so often.
But there sure are things I don't like about triathlon:
~races are such a big deal. You have to show up to every event with a suitcase full of gear, you have more costume changes than a 3-act play, and there's so much to think about all at once.
~it is fucking expensive, like cycling and then some.
~sharks, and the possibility of sharks. I'm afraid of open water. Plus that water is damn cold.
~running. I really do hate running sometimes. After a bike ride happens to be one of those times.
Why do I do triathlons? I don't actually like triathlons so much, but I'd have trouble deciding which of the three is my favorite sport. I wouldn't want to give one of them up, I just don't like putting them all together. I like that the challenge keeps me honest and makes me get out there and do/see things I wouldn't normally do or see, but rowing, hang gliding, bobsledding, and dog shows could do that.

"You know, USA Cycling is always looking for women pros," he said. "All the new blood in the sport goes over to triathlon. No one wants to do just cycling anymore. But I've never known a young triathlete who loved the sport so much that he traveled the country living out of a VW bus so he could ride every day in a new place." Well of course not, a triathlete needs a pool. But he had a point. "You know, you don't have to be a genetic freak in women's cycling to be a pro. Really, I bet you could do it. So, why triathlon? Where do you want to go in the sport?" I was still stumped. I wasn't really considering pursuing a career as a pro cyclist, although I was flattered he would suggest it.

The subject came back to the bike, and what my budget should be. "Well," he asked, "are you a competitive person?" Am I a competitive person? There are no words to describe how competitive I am. "And yet you say you're not a very good swimmer or runner," he pointed out. Again, he had a point. Sometimes I get so angry. I suck at running, I really do. For the amount of work I put into it, I really should be going faster. This has been the case since high school when we had to do speed work and I couldn't make the intervals that even the slowest girls on the team were making. I will never, ever run one 7:00 mile in my life, let alone several of them back-to-back. And it just doesn't seem fair that there are people that can just roll out of bed and run at a pace that puts my best race pace to shame. And don't try to tell me it's not true. It is.

We settled on a rough number and I promised I'd come back for some of the store rides, even if it did have to be on my crappy bike. As I was paying for my tires, tubes, and some accelerade, a gearhead that had been hanging around the shop while they fixed his pedals asked me, "So, did you buy a bike?"
"Nah, I was just seeing what was out there so I would know how much to save up," I said.
"What? You didn't tell her about the financing options?" he asked the shop guy. There are financing options?! Now that I know I can run up a tab I'm in some real trouble, this guy certainly does know how to make a sell.

When it comes time, PLEASE remind me that I DON'T NEED a professional-grade road bike.

Epilogue

I'm putting up a poll about your motivations for doing triathlon. For those of you who don't tend to favor one sport, what keeps you from pursuing the one that you're best at? Why do you do three sports instead of just one?
A) I suck at all three, but there's always someone that sucks more than me in each, so I usually come out ahead of someone.
B) I get bored concentrating on just one sport.
C) I just really, really love it because I'm good at it.
D) I don't know, because someone conned me into it a long time ago? It could have just as easily been fly fishing.
E) I don't have athletic ADD. I only do one sport.

As usual, you can vote more than once.