Dream bike has been the new Trek SC. I crashed last year and have a 30% off offer for a replacement. So, I finally got my check tomorrow and I bought…decking material. LOL.
We’ve talked about the deck for about the last 10 years…Scratch that. I have talked about the deck the last 10 years. I figured I would do it now and use the free money (I wasn’t expecting the extra pay thing to work out since I am a county employee and had to fight all year for it. It shockingly finally went through) to do the big project we had always talked about. Funny-I figured I would spend about 5k on the deck and have 5k for the bike. Nope, decking stuff keeps adding up. So, I spent about 8k on the deck. On top of that, the amount of bending over working on the joists (I had a pre-existing deck that I was planning on just resurfacing) but the majority of the boards had to be pulled. My back and hamstrings are shot. I also haven’t done any training since a race 3 weeks ago.
My “A” race is sunday and I was able to defer it, which is good, but it sucks I can’t race.
Maybe some soon…
Nice!
Here’s how I have been evaluating my discretionary purchases fitness lately: Is this going to make me more likely to train and thus pay dividends on being healthy? Or is what I have good enough and the selection diverse enough to keep me engaged?
I’ve been close to pulling the trigger on a new bike for awhile. But mine still works and I’m using it about as much as I have time to spare (without cutting into the swimming, running, etc.)
You can always finance the bike with one of those 20 month 0% interest credit card offers that now show up in the mail (one of the few benefits of high interest rates, for those of us who can pay it off in time).
I got about a $10k bonus last month. Several times what was expected (the business has been doing really well since I joined 😎).
I blew it on… the pension. It all went in the pension. I get stiffed 40% income tax + 2% national insurance. Put it in the pension tax free, + the company goes dutch on the employer’s NI saving and give me half of that extra in the pension as a top up. When I take the pension it’ll come back as 25% of it tax free and the remainder at 20% tax. My decking is going to have to wait a couple more years ! But I’ll be retired in a couple of years, so not long to wait.
(It might get spent on a new a Spaniel to keep me and my Labrador on our toes and entertained!).
Dream bike has been the new Trek SC. I crashed last year and have a 30% off offer for a replacement. So, I finally got my check tomorrow and I bought…decking material. LOL.
We’ve talked about the deck for about the last 10 years…Scratch that. I have talked about the deck the last 10 years. I figured I would do it now and use the free money (I wasn’t expecting the extra pay thing to work out since I am a county employee and had to fight all year for it. It shockingly finally went through) to do the big project we had always talked about. Funny-I figured I would spend about 5k on the deck and have 5k for the bike. Nope, decking stuff keeps adding up. So, I spent about 8k on the deck. On top of that, the amount of bending over working on the joists (I had a pre-existing deck that I was planning on just resurfacing) but the majority of the boards had to be pulled. My back and hamstrings are shot. I also haven’t done any training since a race 3 weeks ago.
My “A” race is sunday and I was able to defer it, which is good, but it sucks I can’t race.
Maybe some soon…
Did you go with composite wood?
Impressive. A while back I got approval from SWMBO/ Household CEO to buy a ‘nice’ road bike. She was actually encouraging me. On the basis that at that time I was more cyclist that did an annual ironman than a triathlete and was riding about 400km a week, and all on a 2001 cannondale I’d bought second hand for NZ$700 and was known as ‘Lazerus’ in the club/town as it would have a terminal crash/mechanical but still be back on the next ride patched up. But I just couldn’t bring myself to do it as I was really busy at work at the time, and knew I’d not get the value from it.
Jump forward to late last year and times have changed, still very busy with work, but in a space where I could replace the 10 year old Argon E114. And I went the Project One Speed Concept. It is a thing of beauty and when it finally arrived at the start of March it was great. Well worth the investment. For all 3 of the rides I got before my stroke.
Laying in the hospital unable to move me right side, genuinely the only thing that I was stressed about was wasting $20k on a bloody bike I wasn’t going to be able to ride, and if only I’d waited another few months…
I’m now ironically literally doing what you are doing, and sorting things out in the house, admittedly mainly in a ‘hiring people’ way to do the kitchen/garden. But the silver lining is that I’m probably going to use a bit of my insurance payout to build the garage/gym (and with a roof deck) I’ve been talking about doing for the 10 years we’ve lived here and never got around to.
So summary, you don’t need flash bikes to have fun, or even be fast. Equally, saving all your money to live comfortably when you retire may look good on paper, but certainly doesn’t look so good on a hospital bed. I’ve never regretted not buying anything, just regret not buying the SC 5 years earlier.
Composite. I figured it would be worth the shot since it will be a long-term investment.
I’ve been shocked with the prices of random items more so than the composite decking. The railings are a killer. I paid about 1200 for them. I didn’t realize that the post sleeves weren’t included in the railings kits, which are 129 about. Post sleeves are 40 and then the caps are 10 and base about 8. So roughly another 60 bucks for each post.
I like doing DIY stuff and am enjoying it, even though it’s taking so long. I’ll post pics sometime.
We went with Trex foggy wharf.
Duncan,
I am really sorry to hear about your situation. I hope there is a possibility of a strong recovery.
Keep us updated about your situation. Praying for you.