Getting frustrated finding the right bike

This past week i've been working less and tried enjoying my time with others. I think a great deal of time was spent with my friend's short cousin who wanted a quality road bike so he can ride with his friends and not feel ashamed. This was not the first time i met the fellow since he seemed anxious to get a road bike his size probably a half-year ago and settled with a kids bike because he thought it was good enough. But, unsurprising, he hated his first bike which was a really inexpensive GMC Denali Kid's bike.

This bike, when i first saw it, was something i'd never consider buying but he bought it anyway because of his seemingly impatient behavior. If i were in his shoes, the first bike i would buy is a used road bike possibly a women's with decent parts - but this guy doesn't like looking awkward and would probably walk away from a ladies bike. The guy wants a nice race bike so he can show off to his friends but the problem is that these nicer bikes are harder to sell so manufacturers are pretty "cautious" when producing bike sizes since most of their customers aren't short like he was (~5'1"). Being too helpful as i am sometimes, i agreed to help him get the right bike which took quite a lot of more time outta me than i expected.

I agreed to go with him to a local craigslist posting on an old Giant OCR bike that a lady was selling for $650 - which i thought was OK at first. The OCR is a frame with some carbon and some quality parts off a race bike. This bike i was really looking forward to since it was sorta everything the guy wanted so I wanted to go out to his house personally to help check the bike out since he really did not know anything and nobody else was available. So when we arrived, we met the seller and I took the bike out for a spin. The bike was an earlier model OCR which was not what i expected - all aluminum parts. So immediately I knew the bike was going to need to cost less than the posted $650. I offered $500 max and the lady tried to say it was worth $550 when she bought it and that she bought and installed a computer for extra $100... So we just walked off and started to visit some stores.

I remembered we looked at was a Specialized Sequoia which was a "comfort" bike with decent parts, it was selling for $1050. I immediately thought it wasn't worth the money since the frame was probably heavier than a race bike and that the bike was not intended for performance. By the time I had a chance to think about it, he was already giving up and was ready to put a down payment on the bike. He was not patient at all, he wanted the bike, and from this experience i saw a lot about his character. So before he took out his cash i suggested we look elsewhere and stopped that "close" transaction.

My new friend said he visited a lot of stores already and it seemed like none of the stores had anything he wanted to try out and so everything he wanted always needed to be pre-ordered (meaning purchased before testing). I really do not believe this was a good idea so I told him he needed to try the bike first before buying it and that he should not judge a bike by just the parts on it since those can be replaced later.

As i returned home, he called me a few times with his usual anxious tone asking me to help him out and look for bikes his size - I spent that weekend looking at different manufacturers. I dug up a website of a local bike shop near me and saw that it had something his size and price range so i gave him a call and he was already ready to drive over here. I told him they were probably closed and that i should give them a call - and i was right because it was the 4th of july weekend. Anyway on monday he called me a few times and told me he was on his way there - i met him later and he was already on riding the bike on the street and this angered the owner a bit because he didn't even have a helmet.

My friend's cousin, which i still never could remember his name, does not listen very well - which i just remembered now as i'm blogging. I remember my friend repeating the same thing 3 times just because he knew that he doesn't listen very well, which makes quite a lot of sense now. Anyway we went back inside the shop and looked at other bikes - he kept asking the same questions and I stepped in to save the seller some breath. His questions were "does it come in a smaller size?" - no the men's bike does not go lower than size 50. Pointing at a ladies bike "does this bike come in a different color?" - no. Pointing at the same bike "can you get this bike in 'mens'?" - no i told you mens bike doesn't go lower than 50. And it seemed like he at least asked the same questions as if he had short term memory loss.

Eventually, we just ended up buying the bike - a specialized allez triple 2010 with 9 speed sora for $840 total. The bike was not a bad price and i had a good feeling about the bike frame since it was an entry level race bike (not that he would notice right now). Anyway as i thought my day was finally over with him - he called me half an hour later, an hour later, and yet for a 3rd and 4th time... He kept asking me questions and kept me from work that afternoon and I felt like i did not deserve this ...