There is never a dull moment while bike commuting and I highly recommend it.
This being winter and all the dampness that come with the season, it was an unfortunate time to lose my rain bike. Really this bike was more than a rain bike. Last summer I rode it on my bike tour to Portland and back and in the fall rode a few cyclocross races and had designs on riding it to check out the logging roads near North Bend.
Yes it was a lousy time...or was it? Bikes come and go, especially aluminum frames ridden by heavier guys like me. So the opportunistic part of the brain kicks in and starts dredging up the hidden lust for the ultimate bike. Visions of a polished titanium wunderbike flashed before my eyes, decked out with all the extras for commuting and loaded touring, yet in my mind still light and nimble enough for scaling mountain passes or zipping along the country roads. It quickly became very complicated, all the uncertainty over how to acquire such a bike which is not mass produced and therefore would quickly empty the bank account, would probably not be ready for months, and in the end had the very real possibility of not satisfying the hole left by the departure of the red bike. Time was ticking, winter wasn't getting any shorter, sunnier, or drier and after a few rides on my old yellow racing bike with water spraying all over me, every tube and bolt creaking, and the insidious slip of the seatpost, I knew I had to give in to my practical side and get something more like the old red bike.
It's probably very anticlimactic that I found an identical red bike frame on ebay and finally have the red bike reborn. The build was very easy and it was satisfying to have all the parts and tools needed on hand in my garage. The titanium wunderbike is still up in my mind somewhere, parked next to the tandem with the kid stoker kit and panniers.
