Bikes ordered
After our visit to check out bikes at the Vakantiefietser last week, the time had come to finally take the plunge and order some bikes. This is it now – money is being spent, and the trip has taken a step closer to reality.
The first thing to do was to go for a test ride on a variety of different bikes. I must say that it was really enjoyable to have a shot on a decent bike, being so used as I am to crappy bikes thrown together from parts of other ones which were beyond repair. Well, I should hope so, seeing that there’s not too much change out of €2000 for each of these beasts!
As I cycled round the roads and tracks near the Westergasfabriek, I really felt that I could keep going for ever on one of these, it was such a pleasure to be on. Whether I will still feel like that after ten months on the road is a different story.
Later, back at the shop, we got measured up and began discussing options and so on – it seems that every part of a bicycle in available in at least three different types. It was about this point that I felt myself beginning to suffer from information overload, and also that things went a bit sour.
I explained to the guy that was helping us that although I was definitely going to order a bicycle, I would quite like to think everything over for a bit, sleep on it, and come back tomorrow with my final decision. Upon hearing this, he got a bit upset and started acting, in my opinion, quite childishly.
He started making this over-dramatic show of making sure that I could not see my frame measurements (lest I go elsewhere and buy a bike, presumably), and basically just making me feel very uncomfortable indeed. I of course felt myself getting quite angry about this, and thus in even less of a position to make decisions about what to buy. Goddamit, I’m spending a fuck of a lot of money, and I need to be sure that I am doing it right!
The whole thing left quite a bad taste in my mouth, when I should have been super-happy about ordering my brand new bike. I will need to go back tomorrow and try to sort things out.
