The Dallas area is having some crazy heat right now. something like 105 degrees almost every day and stuff. Now with all this heat you find other ways to get out and about without any sort of heat exhaustion. One thing I like to do is peruse the local pawn shops. While I was at a local pawn shop this Trek 1200 road bike caught my eye.
First thing I did was sit on it to see how close to my size it was, and what good luck I was in that it was in the ball park. Then I gave it a simple first look over and verified the components as being shimano sora. The wheels were very rough looking, the tires held air but were worn and dirty. One of the shifters was twisted in a bit and the handle bars were of a cheap walmart re-wrap and dirt and grime was the game for this bike.
The price tag on the bike said 219 US dollars and I am making out a 2006 modish bike with about 100 bucks in repairs and maybe another 100 bucks in parts. I hung around the shop till I could get someone to help me and this guy came over that knew nothing of road bikes and let me know how good of a steal this bike was at that price. Then I asked them their bottom dollar and they were nice enough to come down to 200 US dollars, and I sat there and was thinking about it. Am I the craziest diabetic on the planet? Have I lost my mind? Probably yes to both of those and lucky my brain kicked in and I walked away just proving that the August heat in Dallas makes us appreciate the coming fall. The guy even went over to his buddy and they did an "Ebay" search for a similar bike and they let me know that they found one selling for 369 bucks on the bay's of "E." Now I am about a thousand percent certain that first, just because it is for sale for that amount does not mean it sells. Then who knows what kind of comparison this is because if memory serves me right Trek comes out with a 1200 every year and you can get them with all sorts of upgrades and stuff, not to mention the state of drivability they are both in.
I love Texas but in this heat I might be losing my mind and need to start planning some camping trips in the coming fall instead of wasting my time on 80 dollar bikes being pawned as 200 dollar gems in the rough. Pawn shops are a great place to get great gear at some amazing prices and if you visit regularly you can find these gems because most shops I visit sell any sort of quality camping and outdoor gear pretty darn fast. The only thing is if you dress nice and are clean the workers usually don't mind you much business because their clientele is more of a desperate type instead of a perusing type.
No comments:
Post a Comment