Change of Plans

Lately on the blog I had talked some about new bikes but over the course of the past couple of weeks there has been some changes.

1st is with what bikes I'm going to be riding this season. My new team (Flatwater Cycling) is being sponsored by Felt Bikes for road racing. I am still going to ride my Marin mountain bike this year for sure. In the future I don't know. I never heard anything back from Marin in the forms of sponsorship after I contacted them which kind of bums me out but I still do and will always love their bikes. Any ways the team road bike for 09 was the Felt F2. Very sweet carbon fiber wonder. I was going to get the frame only and then custom build using some parts off my current bike and then get whatever else I need. I actually have already bought a few upgraded components. I was also going to get a cross bike. I've decided that cross is something I definitely want to pursue more and the proper machine for the job would be needed. Since Felt was being supportive of the new team I was going to get the F35X.

The 2nd change is if you noticed in the paragraph above that I was talking in the past tense is that it looks like I'm most likely not going to be getting any new bikes this season. I'm actually kind of getting my ass kicked in bills. Between me and my wife we've been getting hammered with medical bills. I've had to have some dental work done and my wife's endometriosis is back and worse than before. She's already had to have a ton of test's done and is due for some major surgery sometime (after all test results are back and a plan is figured out) later this month. The problems she is having are not life threatening but she is in a lot of pain and I will be glad when everything is taken care of and she can be pain free and have a more normal life. On top of the medical bills we have also decided that it is time to get caught up on some of our debt. At times we have not been the most disciplined with our purchases (like 3 bikes for me in 2 years) and we want to get rid of what we call our "bad" debt. 2009 is when we are going to do that. One of the easiest ways for us is to not put anything else on credit and spend most of our extra money paying back our debt. Now we are not that bad off like some of the people you see on TV but for us it's more than we'd like. With the expenses of my mountain bike races and the med bills new bikes just aren't that likely for this season.

I will admit that I am a bit disappointed but hey I need to be a grown up and get things straightened out. The biggest thing is that my current road bike is just not a bike built for racing and I'm very uncomfortable on it when I'm down in the drop bars so I'm probably just not going to be racing in any road races this year and just be in a supportive role for the team from the sidelines. Not really my style but it's just the way it is road racing will be back in 2010.

On another note though I am still saving some money up and selling more of my stuff on eBay. Mostly old components and stuff that I just don't need. I have put up my Giro Ionos helmet. Kind of a weird thing but Giro is also a team sponsor and the team helmet is a different color so I'm selling my Black/Carbon colored one so I can buy a Titanium colored one exactly like it. Kind of dumb but we (I guess I'm assistant team manager and Sean team manger) want the team to be uniform. Both of us have this thing for having the right look. I'm actually the same way about uniforms in the kitchen. But the helmet is for sale. Great buy. It's only been worn for about 7 months or so and has a new set of pads to go with it. Check it out here.

That's about all my rambling for tonight. Later.

Harp