Just bought a new bike on Ebay!

[emily_in_nc]

And I'm so excited! I'd been watching used Trek Pilots for awhile as I wanted a new road bike with a more comfort/upright geometry, as that is what seems to give me the least pain issue in the area where I fractured my pelvis back in '05. The more aggressive the position, the more pain I experience. I've been wanting another carbon roadie for quite awhile, and now that we're moving back to the US this spring, I will certainly get use out of it. Unlike in the past when I was working and could afford to drop over $2K on a bike, I'm now retired, so budget was a big issue. I just couldn't afford a new carbon bike, but a used bike in good condition is fine with me.

I'm going to have it delivered to my mom's house, so it will be there waiting for me when we get back stateside.

Check it out -- I just love the blue color, and the seller is a real sweetie. We've been corresponding back and forth on all sorts of things, and even though he doesn't have a lot of feedback, I think he's on the level. His wife seems to be exactly the same size as me, and this bike fit her well, but she preferred a more aggressive geometry, so ended up buying a new Madone. I think I got a great deal for full carbon/ultegra!

Hope this link will still work now that the auction is closed:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...#ht_560wt_1010

Happy dance!

[Crankin]

I love that color! I rarely get excited by color/paint on bikes, but this one has always called to me.
I am so happy for you. Where are you moving to?

[Blueberry]

Congratulations! That's a beautiful bike. Hope you have many happy miles together once you're back in the US! Can't wait to see where you "land."

[emily_in_nc]

Thanks ladies! Even though I have a bit of a cold, I can hardly wipe the smile off my face today. I had to go to bed last night not knowing if I'd get the bike since the auction ended in the middle of the night. When I woke up, I was almost scared to check my email as I knew I might not have gotten it, but I don't think many people are thinking about buying bikes on Christmas Eve, which worked to my favor as I was the only bidder.

Where are you moving to?

We are still not 100% sure -- it's a bit complicated. We have an opportunity to rent a nice, furnished house from friends in Prairie Village, KS, who are going cruising on their sailboat next year. If our condo doesn't sell by this spring, that will be our best option as we can put the condo in the rental pool but won't have the equity out of it to buy another house; and if we rent anywhere else, we'd most likely have to buy or rent furniture as well -- we divested ourselves of most of that when we moved to Belize.

If our condo does sell, we have more options since we'll get our equity out. We could buy a house back in NC if we wanted to, or do the KS rental for a year first to see how that goes, or we talk about just traveling around in an RV for awhile. One of the things we've realized from our time here is that we want to continue traveling quite a lot now that we're both retired. We just got back from 16 days traveling around Mexico (five different cities) and had a blast! There are so many places we want to see in the US (especially in the west since most of our past travels have been in the east), and it would be easier to do that from Kansas than NC, but we love NC and will most likely end up back there eventually. Orange County keeps calling us back from wherever we try to go!

Whew...long answer, right? I told you it was complicated! No matter where we end up, though, cycling is going to be a big part of the equation. It's been fun riding beach bikes here, but it's awfully limiting; there are few roads, and we miss our road riding a LOT.

[OakLeaf]

Pretty! Enjoy. And hope you get your location sorted soon.

[murielalex]

Congrats! I also love the color. It looks like you got a good deal.

[Giulianna23]

Beautiful Bike....congrats!!

[Melalvai]

For real? My uncle & aunt live in Prairie Village.

I'm really interested in your ebay experience. I'm a bit intimidated by ebay. Once I bid on something, but I didn't get it.

[emily_in_nc]

For real? My uncle & aunt live in Prairie Village.

I'm really interested in your ebay experience. I'm a bit intimidated by ebay. Once I bid on something, but I didn't get it.

Cool -- how do they like Prairie Village? I'm not sure it's really our kind of town (and the cold winters and hot summers not much to my liking) -- but they would be giving us a fantastic deal on rent on a very nice house, furnished down to the forks and spoons, so it's very tempting. Plus, we always enjoy new places -- for awhile. They just never seem to stick.

You shouldn't let ebay intimidate you, but it is old hat to me. I started buying there in 2003/2004 and have bought 100s of things, from bike parts to clothes to you name it. A few years later I started selling, and that's how we got rid of tons of our stuff before moving to Belize. I've both bought and sold bikes there in the past as well. It's a great place to buy used stuff. Some great deals, some not so good. Most people wait until the very end of the auction to bid, so if you bid early on, it's easy to get outbid. In this case, there were no other bids on this auction, so I got lucky! Good advice I've often read is:

1) Bid only once
2) Bid your maximum (so that if you get outbid, you won't be tooooo upset, since you weren't willing to pay that much)
3) Bid late in the auction.

There are a lot more advanced techniques (sniping services and the like), but for the most part, it's not that complicated. Go for it!

[MMEZ]

What a beautiful bike - congratulations!

[thekarens]

That's very close to the color of my bike so I highly approve :-)

[girlontheroad]

Beautiful bike. Look forward to your next adventure. North Carolina calls to me as we'll after having lived there. Florida just isn't as good.

[Melalvai]

They've lived there for about 40 years, so I guess they like it pretty well! I don't know much about it, I've only seen it during visits spent inside their house.

Thanks for the ebay tips. That's encouraging!

[goldfinch]

Love the bike, as others have said the color is very nice.

[emily_in_nc]

Congrats on the new bike, Emily!

And it's nice to hear you can try a roadie again!

Thanks! My Bike Friday is a road bike, and still I love it, but since I keep it loaded down with racks/fenders for utility rides (and an airhorn for dogs), and it's steel, it's a bit heavier and slower ride. I am craving a go-fast bike again for pure pleasure rides (and hopefully some events in the future) and am hoping that the geometry of this one will keep the pain from becoming a problem. I was using a TENS unit to help with pain on longer Bike Friday rides back in NC and had very good success with it, but I really needed the handlebars on that bike to be a little higher/closer as I found that I was most comfortable on the tops of the bars than on the hoods or drops as I used to prefer. I may eventually buy a different stem from Bike Friday so I can jack the bars up a bit. I never have pain on my beach cruiser or on a mountain bike -- more upright posture and higher handlebars.