Breakdown

Yesterday I sold my travel bike. Finally.

It definitely took a while. Five months, to be exact. It has never taken me so long to sell a bike.

There was a time when a 26-inch wheeled single speed with S&S Couplers would have been a hot commodity, but those days have passed. We are also dealing with unprecedented issues with the economy and consumer confidence that have slowed the sales of nearly everything.

It took a number if iterations and price reductions to finally get the job done. When I first put it up for sale in May, it looked like this:

This saddle height is about 3-4 inches lower than I rode with.

New tubeless wheels and tires, a little titanium, colorful anodized parts. It looked good, but there was little interest.

Then I thought maybe the world wanted gears, so I put an XT 11-speed drivetrain on it. I sold the wheels separately and lowered the price with the old wheels. No dice.

Then I dumbed down the parts even further, again as a single speed.

Finally at $500 I made the sale.

There was a mix of relief and sadness as the new owner rode away. I have owned many, many bikes. I have sold many, many bikes. This bike was definitely special. Looking back, it was a lot of fun to plan and execute this bike for a specific purpose.

I first conceived the plot to ride bikes in Cozumel 12 years ago, a time when I was much younger and had fewer issues with my body, specifically my neck. Riding something like this with the bars so far below the saddle was no big deal.

This is how high I actually needed the saddle.

I was young and strong.

But these days riding around hunched over on a tiny 26-inch bike isn't appealing. I tried a number of different bar and stem combinations, but finding something high and comfortable that would still fit in the very tight travel case was nearly impossible. With rise comes size, and there simply wasn't room for it.

An upright position that provides neck relief is the main reason I started riding Jones bikes. My bars on the Jones are now are almost a foot higher than the travel bike.

We will always have the pictures and the memories. Of course, we would love to do it again, but we aren't getting any younger. Even back then, 41 miles in the heat and extreme humidity was tough.

With any luck we will find another option that allows us to explore the world on bikes again that is more convenient and comfortable.

Later.