The Big Build-up

   My neighbor Bob is a regular customer of mine, bringing his or his wife’s bicycles to me for tune-ups or solutions to the occasional mechanical problems that are beyond his capabilities to remedy. He has often expressed a bit of envy when he sees me effortlessly swing one of my lightweight bicycles out the side door with one hand.  Bob’s 6’3” body requires a large-framed bike that is going to weigh a bit more than the average cyclist’s machine anyway, but his 25-year-old aluminum Trek is considerably heavier than a bicycle made with today’s modern materials.

   Bob is in his sixties, but you can find him out on the roads and trails fairly often, either on relaxing rides with his wife Janet or more up-tempo workouts with a couple of friends. At least once a year he also enters one of the longer fundraiser rides in the area each year, at which time we are usually tweaking something on his bike in preparation for the event. During one of these pre-race sessions, we struck up a conversation on modern bicycles.

   He knew about the incredibly low prices I'd paid for my bicycles, mostly through patient searches, and he casually asked what he might be able to get for under $1200. While Bob is computer savvy and didn’t mind doing some research, he just didn’t want to put the time into browsing listings that some bike-crazy person (like me) would. I told him that I would get back to him with some samples from recent listings on eBay and craigslist.

   I quickly found that pickings for 61 or 62 centimeter frames were slim, compared to a common sized 56 cm frame for which an average-height guy like me would be looking. I also discoved that because those frames were harder to find, they were also more expensive. Of the few early examples I presented, Bob did express an interest in the Specialized frames and their modern sloping geometry. I told him to buy a bike he was excited about and wanted to show off, because it would make him want to ride more often!

   A side story to this prospective purchase that I found amusing was the conversations Bob had with Janet about the bicycle. She initially told him he could only have his classic Corvette (for which he rents a space in our large garage) or a new bike, but although she was definitely joking, I got the sense this comment was always going to be in the back of his mind. In fact, when the time eventually came to start acquiring parts, Bob would say to me, “I’ll take this from the Corvette maintenance fund.” To add to the fun, whether she really cared or not, Bob would show each part we were considering to Janet and ask, "What do you think?"

   He definitely wasn’t in a hurry to buy, which was ultimately a good thing, but I did feel a bit frustrated when I thought we had a really good lead, and he was a bit indecisive. Ultimately, it was his bicycle, and I had to keep in mind that the most important factor was Bob's satisfaction - aesthetically and financially!

   After thinking about it a while, I came up with an idea to stretch out the payments and keep costs down. I was finding reasonably priced framesets available more often than complete bikes, and approached Bob with the idea of building up a bicycle. This way he could pay me as we gathered all of the parts, instead of taking the one big hit to the wallet for a ready-to-ride bicycle. Patient searching would allow me to find lightly-used parts that were much cheaper than brand new, and I also told Bob that he wouldn’t have to pay me for the assembly, since making all of the purchases on his behalf would cause a nice accumulation of (cash-back incentive) Ebay Dollars in my account.

   I really enjoy this kind of “work”, Bob’s being the fourth bicycle I’ve brokered this year, although I wish I actually got paid to do it. I would probably find it easier to complete transactions if I wasn’t depending on my “clients” providing timely feedback on the products I come up with in my searches. Of course there aren’t many people that have the kind of freedom that being a stay-at-home dad allows, so I can’t imagine what this process would involve without email and Facebook to aid communication!

   I had an even greater appreciation for the electronic age when my parents had coinciding health issues that had me away from home for the better part of two weeks. Although I acquired the frame and a few pieces before leaving, I unfortunately had to inform Bob of the impending delay. I was, however, able to conduct my parts hunt during some of the down times between hospital visits/errand-running and make some significant progress.

Next week I’ll talk about the frameset we bought, and some of the little snags that have become a fairly major annoyance in the attempt to get our project underway.