{"id":1507,"date":"2005-02-22T02:44:18","date_gmt":"2005-02-22T07:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wordpress\/2005\/02\/doing_shopping\/"},"modified":"2005-02-22T02:44:18","modified_gmt":"2005-02-22T07:44:18","slug":"doing_shopping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/2005\/02\/doing_shopping\/","title":{"rendered":"Doing Shopping"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve fallen prey to the buying bug. After a couple summers of renewed interest in bicycling, I’ve determined that I need a newer bike. Well, I guess that depends on how one defines “need.” My 21-year-old Raleigh rides about as well as it did a year or two ago. But it’s not as fast or sexy as the new ones. And who doesn’t like fast or sexy? Besides, the old faithful has a weight issue, and extra pounds aren’t your friend when you’re headed up any of East Tennessee’s finer hills.
\nI haven’t decided what to buy yet; I’m leaning toward a carbon fiber frame with an ultegra-level components. Thus far I’ve looked at some Treks, Bianchis, Felts, and Giants. Hope to check out Specialized, Litespeed, and a couple other brands soon. My hunch is that within a given price range, the quality of a majority bikes is comparable. So test rides are primarily focused on fit and feel.
\nIf it’s been a while since you priced road bikes. Or if, like me, you’re cheap, you might be surprised at the cost of these machines. So in addition to finding a bike I like, I’ve also been going through some rationalization exercises to justify a purchase. Here’s a few of the things I’ve come up with:
\n(1) Haven’t bought a bike in 20 years.
\n(2) The cost isn’t so bad if you amortize it over a number of years.
\n(3) I don’t spend a lot on entertainment\/recreation.
\n(4) Cost isn’t so bad when you compare it to recreations such as golf and travel.
\n(5) An investment in health.
\n(6) You’re only “young” once.
\n(7) It’s fun.
\nI hope to complete this process soon. Warm weather is fast approaching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve fallen prey to the buying bug. After a couple summers of renewed interest in bicycling, I’ve determined that I need a newer bike. Well, I guess that depends on how one defines “need.” My 21-year-old Raleigh rides about as well as it did a year or two ago. But it’s not as fast or […]<\/p>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"h-entry","8":"hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1507\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}