Teaching a man to fish... with a bicycle.

I've been pretty hardcore riding my bike now for about seven months. I've put almost 3000 miles on my Trek Alpha Series 2200 since January. In that time I've slowly been engulfed by the world of "cycling". I started reading "Bicycling" magazine in the bookstore, then decided that, at $11 a year, it was actually not a bad idea to subscribe to it, lest I generate ill will at Books-A-Million for being a lecherous loitering sort. I started following "cyclists" on Twitter and as a result have started to read more cycling blogs, visit more cycling websites, and subscribing to cycling email newsletters of all shapes and sizes. In short, I've pretty much "gotten into it".

I bought my Trek a few years ago. At the time, I was really into mountain biking and was taking regular trips up to Poinsett State Park in Sumter to ride the "Killer Three Loop". I was enjoying that so much that I thought maybe a road bike could help me build endurance during the week when I wasn't able to take off and get out of town. I wasn't really actively looking for a road bike, but would regularly visit my LBS ("Local Bike Shop" for those of you who aren't familiar with the jargon) and sort of wander around seeing what I could get that was in my price range of "I'm new and don't really need a $4000 carbon racing bike". Luckily, (or unluckily depending on who you are) somebody locally (I still don't know who) lost their wife tragically to breast cancer and as a result put both of "their" bikes up for consignment as "he" didn't really want to ride anymore without "her" (I know..sad, right?). So, being in the right place at the right time, I was able to get a really nice, what some would consider a somewhat high end road bike for just under my price/pain threshold. A couple of months of layaway later and I had a bike that I rode a little here and there, but never really gravitated to because of course at the time, my first love was my Cannondale F600 Mountain Bike.

That all changed over the winter when I finally decided that I was going to get into shape and improve my cardiovascular health in order to stay off cholesterol and high blood pressure medication. I bought some rollers, took the Trek into my LBS for a nice cleaning and overhaul, and started riding it in the garage nightly. When it got warm enough, I moved outside, increased my mileage and really haven't looked back. I recently started commuting to work in an effort to increase my miles per day (around 30 or so round trip), and I've really started to become passionate about riding my bike, or...as they say, "cycling".

Naturally, this led me to start thinking about upgrading my bike. This spring I started riding with a group of local cyclists and there's definitely a tendency to get caught up in the whole mentality of "man, I need to get a carbon frame" or "it sure would be nice to have some nicer wheels" or "how about that Dura-Ace group, eh?" and I absolutely was feeling that.

I call it, "Peloton Peer Pressure".

I began saving up money since about March or April and figured, with careful budgeting, and good timing (I get paid weekly on Thursday, but my bills are monthly, so months like July, which have 5 Thursdays in them are sort of considered "gimmes" with an extra paycheck) I'd have enough money to really throw down on a nice road bike in August. I've been looking at the 2010 Madones, some of the higher end carbon Felts, a couple of models of Cervelos, and I'd somewhat narrowed the field to the new Trek Madones (it is, after all, the bike "Lance Rides") and was just waiting to see what kind of deal my LBS could offer me if I paid cash.

Then I started to get cold feet.

Well, not really cold feet, but I started to think, "Do I really need a new bike?" and, "what would be a better use of my money?" I kept thinking how much I wanted to learn how to actually work on my bike. Not just clean and maintain it, but REALLY work on it. I realized if I could learn, and I mean really learn, how to work on my bike, I could not only prolong the life of my bike, but I could slowly replace older, worn out parts with much better parts over the course of the next year or so, and wind up with a much better bike. Then, rather than simply going out and buying a new bike, I could start to shop for a nicer frame, and by the time next summer rolled around, I could have a much better bike for far less money, not have to outlay a huge amount of money at once, and really go a long way towards being self sufficient in terms of being able to work on, and prolong the life of my bike. In other words, instead of going out and simply buying a fish, I'd concentrate on learning to fish.

So after a bit of Googling, and some followup conversations with some people that have chosen the same path, I decided to enroll in the United Bicycle Institute. Unfortunately, the bad news is that the October class for "Introduction to Bicycle Maintenance" is full, but the good news is, after contacting the UBI, I've learned that they're in the process of opening a second location in Portland Oregon and I'm now on the waiting list to get into the classes that they'll be launching this October!

I'm so excited. This feels like such a good decision. In keeping with 2009's theme of "self-improvement" I have to think that this is a much better use of my time, money, and energy!