Back in April, a friend of mine talked me into signing up for the Nike Women's Half Marathon in October, so I started training. After realizing that running is actually DEATH in disguise, I decided to take up cycling to help me cross-train (and supposedly hauling my fat ass up and down the hills of Berkeley will also help me come ski season).
In a typical display of Cherie-ness (not having any sense of moderation), I went out and bought my first road bike at the beginning of May and I managed to get a pretty good deal on it ($850 for the bike, plus shoes, cleats and pedals). Sadly, while I was adjusting the front derailleur, I ran across a rather common problem with my Shimano 105 5600 shifters from the 2007-2009 era...the left/front one broke. I had some luck finding $140 Shimano Ultegra 6700 shifters on Craigslist (though at the time I didn't check the stamped part number and relied on the "triple" name plate...that lying piece of plastic!), but soon discovered the error of my ways and was faced with a dilemma: either find new triple shifters or upgrade early to a compact (50/34t). Again, lack of moderation and the following calculations led me to upgrade a whole lot of stuff on my bike:
New Shifters ($250)
ST-5703 $250
Upgrade ($244)*
FD-5700 $29
FC-5750 $143
SM-BB5700 $21
CN-5701 $21
Tape & Bar Phat $30
So now that I've totally blown through my bike budget for the next 6 months, I need to make good use of my bike, hopefully reversing the "I talk about my bike more than I ride it" trend.
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| Strava ride |
If stalking me via blog is not enough for you, you can follow my adventures on Strava. Alternatively, you could also join me!
* I got lucky and found some pretty decent prices from the UK outfit Wiggle. Check them out! (I don't make any referral money off the link)
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