20 bucks is a drop in the hat, really. As others have suggested, he did rescue it and store it for a few months. Business is business, and he was really under no obligation to cut me any sort of deal whatsoever. It's not as though I've never flipped a bike before, so I understand where he's coming from. He's also planning a bicycle tour in New Zealand next month, so he probably needs whatever money he can get.

As for the bike, it seems pretty nice. It's got biopace chainrings, which I'm excited about. I haven't ridden them enough to get an opinion yet, but since they do seem to inspire such controversy, I'm excited to see what all the fuss is (or isn't) about. The original pedals were also Shimano 105, but I managed to break both of the plastic toe clips in the course of the first 3 mile test ride. I think the plastic had gone brittle. Does that even make sense? Until I figure out a more appropriate solution, I just threw on a cheap pair that I had lying around. Seeing as this is probably the nicest bike that I foresee myself owning any time soon, I'd like to clean it up and restore it as faithfully as possible. I need to figure out some good rust-removal tactics for some of the tiny steel parts on this thing.