Bike bug

I've been bitten by the bike bug again. My bike was sent to me by my wonderful parents late last year, and that satisfied by bike desires for a while, but now I want a fast bike again. My friend Lyle, who is also into cameras photography, was talking about buying a bike last week, and we ended up talking about bikes. It's amazing how much some bikes cost here, like the Specialized Allez, a aluminum frame with carbon chain stays and fork. It's $1800 in the US, but it sells for ¥280000 here. Their Japanese distributor must be taking a huge cut. Plus, they don't sell frames larger than 52 cm in Japan, so they are ruled out even though the bike looks good. A few bikes that I'm interested. The Giant OCR Composite 2, is a full carbon frame with Ultegra components which I've seen for ¥220000. Not really sure how they can sell a full composite frame for that cheap though. The Felt F55 however is $1800 in the US, and ¥190000 here. Basically the same price when you adjust for the exchange rate. This bike is basically the same type frame as the specialized, Trek, and a lot of the other bikes, but it's got full Dura Ace components, nice wheels, and carbon cranks.

There are just so many to choose from. I'll probably be limited somewhat by availability of frames in my size, and I've heard that ordering one can take quite a while. It seems that Lance Armstrong has fueled quite a resurgence in the popularity of road biking in the US, and component makers like Shimano can't keep up with demand. It will probably take me quite a while to locate the bikes I'm looking at in my size, and the get them all test ridden. Buy that time, maybe I'll actually be able to afford one.

The other consideration of buying a new bike, is where to put it. You can't exactly leave a $2000 bike out side. It will be in my room, hopefully on a rack that I will design to hold it above my TV.

My boss asked to see one of the catalogues that I had yesterday. He said that he used to do a lot of touring, like riding across Kyushu when he was 19. A lot of things have changed since then. I guess that he figured that technology had improved since the time when he had a 15 speed bike, with a 5 speed rear cassette, because he asked me if it has a 6 speed rear. When I told him that it was 10 speed, he was pretty shocked. That all that most bikes had in total when he was riding.

Even if I don't get a new bike for a while, I'm having fun shopping for it.