Chuck has been waiting for this day for a very long time! Ever since that fateful day in 2014 when his beloved bike was stolen. He has done research. He's watched countless bike videos on YouTube. He even has a detailed spreadsheet of all the features he wants listed by bike manufacturer and price point. The only thing he was undecided about was the timing. He thought he'd buy the bike closer to the end of Spring when the weather was nicer for riding.
But we now live in a town known for biking. There are trails EVERYWHERE. And a quick google search lists at least 30 bike shops. People are crazy for cycling here. What better place to start his search. He would often go out at lunch and look at bike shops, talk to sales reps, and gather more intel for his Bike Buying Spreadsheet (Do people even have spreadsheets any more? Is that even a thing?). During the course of one such scavenger hunt, he came across some very disturbing news. The bike supply is reaching a dangerous level of scarcity. The pandemic created a drastic rise in demand for bikes since it was considered a safe social distance activity to do outside. He was told that if he ordered a bike today, because of such low supply, any new bike wouldn't be available until the beginning of next year! What?!? Not acceptable! This was not fitting in the time frame calculations on his Bike Buying Spreadsheet.
Suddenly he was afraid that there might not be any bikes left to purchase come springtime. So, we did what we always do. We talked about it and realized we'd have to just be flexible. That course of action has always seemed to work best for us. We make plans, but stay flexible. In this instance it meant moving the "buy date" up a few months so he could get the bike he really had his eye on.
So this past Friday, we went to one of the 30 bike shops around town and ordered the bike his heart desired. Luckily, they had one in stock in his size (yes, bikes come in sizes....I had no idea) it was just still in the box. The sales rep offered to get it to show us the color since that was the only thing he couldn't really see very well from the online pictures. Come to find out, it was even more perfect that he could have imagined. What guy doesn't want a Matte Nautical Navy Trek bike?!
I present to you, the happy researcher with his newly purchased wheels. Actually, this was yesterday, the day we got to pick up the bike. It took the service team a full day to assemble and align the bike. While we were at the store I asked Chuck if maybe we should put the bike he was looking for me on hold since there was a shortage problem. Yes, this was a two person event! We like to have fun together and what better way than to ride around our beautiful town on gorgeous days getting tons of fresh air and exercise. We vacillated between two different bike styles and sizes for me. But ultimately it came down to the color.
Because I love pink! And we found a pink one in my size only an hour away. So we headed up to Evergreen in the mountains to pick up my bike on the same day we got Chuck's. It was #NewBikeDay for both of us. What a fun turn of events! This is the guy at the bike store who calibrated my bike and made sure it was a good fit for me.
