The inbetweens

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I hate being in those inbetween stages in life, where investing in something long-term is probably not the wisest investment, and yet you could really use it in the near future. Case in point, I bought my current bike in 2000. It's a TREK with a 23.5 inch frame, which is hard to find. Most bikes only go as high as 22 inches, and since I'm relatively tall, this bike has served me well. In an effort to keep the frame itself, I've replaced just about everything else on it. Basically I've put several thousand miles on it, and it's getting tired, despite the occasional replaced/upgraded part. It's been a stalwart friend and companion. And now it's causing me grief.

I have been using it for transport to and from work for the last six weeks or so, which has been good on so many levels. If I don't bike for a while, I forget how much I love it, which is exactly what had happened up until recently. Well, my faithful friend is getting old. For some reason I've gotten four flats in two weeks, an aggravating ratio of flat tires to weeks. I think there's an issue with the actual metal of the wheels shearing off and popping brand new tubes. It's been about two and a half years since I last had a tune-up, but I just don't often feel I can spare the $50-$75 dollars a tune-up tends to cost. So now I'm looking at a $150 bill to get my bike passably fixed, and $210 to get it back to full power. If you take the original cost of the bike, I've easily spent twice that getting it to continue working for the last 8 years. So now I'm really wanting a new bike. Except that I'll probably only be in the country for another six to nine months before heading overseas. Maybe I could take it with me, but that may be unrealistic. Seems that's how everything is for me now. Do I really need this for the next however-many-months? I'm considering biking the Oregon coast this September, in which case, a new bike would be a great help... *sigh* What to do, what to do...