Bike time

As soon as the pollen dies down, I'm going to start biking again, and eventually ride to work. The mountain bike I bought in 1993 is officially too old. One of the shifters is broken, the brakes need replacing, the thing has been hit by two trucks, and I think it is a little bit too small. Also, it and the $50 Nishiki (also too small and old) have been in the rain ever since the shed was turned wrong side out in that windstorm.

I had my eye on a K2 on craigslist for about two weeks. When I finally made up my mind and contacted the seller, he had sold it one hour prior. ONE HOUR.

So now I am deciding between three bikes, two of which I don't even know the price of, as they are on ebay (but close enough to just go pick them up instead of shipping them):

  • A vintage De Rosa, which was $2100 15 years ago
  • A sweet TREK 2200 with nice wheels and a hard shipping case (to be sold) which was $1500 4 years ago
  • An almost new midgrade Specialized Allez Sport that was $850 3 years ago
More info is here.

One auction ends thursday, and one on saturday. I hate ebay and auctions. I'm afraid to bid on both and end up winning both. I don't know strategy for bidding, but I've been bidding them up closer to my upper limit, hoping that if someone is going to outbid me, they'll go ahead and get it over with so I can cross that one off of my list.

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Kretta
I have bought several things on e-bay and have found it is best to not bid until the last minute so that the price doesn't keep going up if you are bidding against someone. I probably could have saved about $25 or more on the Palm Pilot I got your mom if I had just waited a little longer to bid. I heard that one of the bike shops in East Ridge is selling all his bikes and closing his store. Don't know if he deals in quality bikes or not.
Kretta
Oh and another thing. Don't bid on 2 at a time, bid on the one that ends first then if you don't get it you still have time to go after the 2nd one and you don't run the risk of accidently winning both.
knewman
I'm now "winning" on the one that ends first. My goal isn't to win any certain one, but rather to get other bidders to "show their hands" early. If someone wants to pay more than I want to, I'd rather learn that now than get caught up towards the end and pay more than I'd like trying to "win".

I bought my Giant bike at East Ridge Bicycles in 1993 with graduation money (I rode it up and down Signal Mountain, every day I was at Vanderbilt, and every day I went to MTSU - I think I got my $425 out of that one). That's the classy place, and there is another one also on the same road that sells more used/junky bikes. I can't remember the name of that one.

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