new kicks

So back a few days after IMCOZ Jamie and I headed out on a ride and my derailleur completely fell off the frame (along with a piece of the frame) and lodged itself in my spokes.  Looking back I'm shocked I didn't crash as I had to carry the bike home, in the air, wheel unable to spin.  So Jamie made me a fixie and I had one gear.  which sometimes decided to change.  all by itself.  and sometimes the chain would fall off but it was good and i could at least train.  but my knees were getting beat up in headwinds when i'd be pushing too high a gear for the conditions.  so we began to look for a new bike.

i originally thought i could get away with paying only $500 USD but we soon came to the realization that living where we do and being unable to rely on the post and get spare parts at a decent price (a big requirement when you're building your bike piecemeal) it just wasn't going to happen.  So we needed a fully functional bike, frame+components+wheels.  And figured we'd be spending some money.  I was able to find a guy selling bikes that had been used for triathlon rentals though and got a sweet deal on a normally $4KUSD bike for less than half that cost.  Course once I added up the customs fees and import and transport here, it became closer to half that cost. 

I decided to go with our standby Merkalink, to import the bike as you just never know what is going to happen if you use USPS (who then hands over to MexPost at the border).  I've read amazing accounts from folks in Cancun who regularly receive their stuff but I wasn't going to take the chance with this bike as I have yet to receive packages from 2 years ago and had 13 month delivery for 2 books once way back when I trusted MexPost.  For some reason teh bike gained about 25 pounds (listed at 25 pounds when it left the sender and listed at 39KG at Merkalink) and they would not budge from that obvious fraud.  It killed me to pay those charges but TIM.  Maybe their extortion fees have gone up recently.  Who knows.  At least they're getting stuff though. 

So off to the bank Jamie went, paid the fees, I emailed the comprobante to them and it was a pretty short (2 days) time in Aduana before heading down here.  It must have been a very tiring trip though as the bike sat in the Playa distribution center (15 km from our house) from Saturday until Thursday when I finally had enough and Jamie headed to Estafeta after picking the kids up from school for "delivery".  Amazingly, the bike was, at that very moment on the truck and being delivered.  Who wudda thunk?  Unfortunately there was some damage either from transit or poor packaging.  One piece can be replaced (the seat mast) and the seller has offered to send me a new one and the other we're hoping is just cosmetic.

Jamie is putting the finishing touches on teh bike and off we'll head today and try it out.  We have a norte back in town so I've got 3k swim on my list along with that 60k ride and a 5k run.  That should clear out the doldrums...