It’s really sad but I haven’t been on my bike in almost two weeks now.
The shop took a few days to put Electric Dream Machine together and I opted to have a basic fitting to get her specs back in alignment for Cycling Nirvana. And the next day I went on a non-cycling vacation.
But I promised a recap of the Travel with Your Bike experience.
- The boxing/unboxing experience was probably the most painful part. I’m not mechanically oriented just yet – so I don’t feel comfortable disassembling/re-assembling my ride. It was ~$35 per instance to have the shop take care of that for me – so $150 total. (Although making appointments for said services tended to speed things up. )
- The box itself is moderately unwieldy – standing on its end it was almost as tall as I am. But it was surprisingly easy to wheel around and load into a mid-size SUV by myself.
- Frontier Airlines was awesome. The box came in at 52 pounds (53.5 with my saddle bag included on the way back). Both overweight fees were waived – but I attribute this to having status on the airline more than a testament of the airline. Had I needed to pay the fee, it’s $75 each way ($150 total)
- Having my bike to ride? PRICELESS.
So the question becomes – do I take my bike with me on my next vacation in July? Or do I rent one from a local shop? Financially it’s a toss-up – about $350 total for a week-and-a-half vacation. The edge goes to renting because there will be no delay in assembling or the hassle of schlepping it around with me while also trying to keep track of my kids. But it’s not my bike.
Looking forward to being back home for a few weeks to get back to cycling a few days a week. My son and I are doing the 25 mile route in the Cycle Bucks County event next weekend – will be his first cycling event with rest/aid stations. He’ll be on his mountain bike and I’m committed to riding his pace to make this the most positive experience possible. We’re both pretty excited to do this event together.
I also signed up for the Scenic Schuylkill Century this fall – need to finish 100 miles in 9 hours or less including rest stops! I’ve built my base miles pretty well recently – 50 miles is completely manageable now. Time to start adding miles for endurance and working on speed to get to about 13-14 mph over the entire ride (finish in about 7-7.5 hours). I’m at a verified 13mph average over 50 miles now. Planning on a 63 mile ride in about a month (self-mapped and with friends) and then meeting up with another local female rider on weekends to increase to a consistent 75-80 miles per ride.
So look for more talk of training rides and elevation gain all kinds of stuff that really only is interesting to me. 🙂
See you on the road!
wife. mother. awesome girl. 
I think if you can get assembly dates with the shops on each end, you would be better off with shipping your own bike – because it’s your bike! The guys at my shop are pretty quick, but I know that if you walk in unannounced, sometimes the work takes a while. At least if you get all your geometry marked at this next fit it shouldn’t be such a bother for the reassembly next time around.
Yeah – having appointments for the services definitely helps. The “issue” at that point becomes having to schlep around a giant less-than-wieldy box.
I’m calling around for rentals and seeing if they have anything to reserve in my size. If I’m renting, I’ll ask if they do basic fits as well. It’s 90% rider, 10% bike, right? 😉