Friday, September 14, 2007

"New tri bike? Who needs a new tri bike"....I do?

As you may have read in my previous post, I had planed to continue using my Trek 2300 for the triathlon season next year after upgrading some key components. Well...things have changed a bit.

This week I was offered nearly 3 times what I payed my Trek. Now at first I thought there was no way I was going to sell it....I mean what are the chances of me finding the same kind of deal twice right? WRONG! While cruising eBay I stumbled across an auction for an incredible true tri bike with less then 200 miles on it, at an incredible price. Even more amazing was all the gear that was included in the sale. Check it out below!

2007 Felt S32

  • Extra tri saddle
  • Helmet
  • Diadora Geko Size 10 shoes w./ step in clips (brand new, never worn)
  • Bike Lock
  • Under seat bag (for spare tires, energy gel, etc...)
  • Under cross bar bag
  • Seat bar mounted tire pump
  • Padded shorts (brand new, never worn)
  • Minoura stationary trainer
  • Trek speedometer
  • Aero drink
  • Pedals and matching cleats
To view the actual auction page you can click here.

So I put a snipe bid in using my favorite auction software and waited. I have NEVER lost an auction using this software and hoped this would not be the first. If you are familiar with how sniping works and want to win any auction you bid on, here is the key to my success. Change the default snipe time from the standard 12 seconds to 5. No one sets it that low and because of that, I have won even when others are also using snipe software. Even if you're a casual eBay user this software pays for itself the first time you use it. How you may be asking? Well, you only place one bid with only seconds left, so no one has time to put in a higher bid and so it keeps the price down. Anyway, back to the bike....

The auction ended at about 2 am Thursday. Upon waking, I was so excited to find out if I had
won that I nearly tripped down the stairs. I slowly opened the my laptop and was greeted by "You won". "Yeah" I yelled and my kids ran over to see what had dad so excited. "It's just a bike Dad", my oldest son stated very mater of fact, then returned to his bowl of Lucky Charms.
But it wasn't just a bike to me. The S32 is my dream bike and came with an indoor trainer for the winter and a whack of other stuff. Awesome!

Why was this a better deal then upgrading my old bike? Like most things, it was all about the $. All things considered the new bike only cost me $100.

Bike Upgrade Cost: $400 ( all the upgrade parts + I would need new tires)

New Triathlon Bike: $100 ( $900 for the new bike, minus $800 from the sale of the old)

So bottom line is the this...the competition better watch out next season, 'cause I plan on knocking 5-6 minutes off my time. Smoking fast!

1 comment:

Leslie Knope and Co said...

Very nice blog you havve here