Mithrandir

Bike shop called today while I was at work. They said the new LHT is ready, I just need to bring in the tires and we're good to go!

But... they close early today because it's Veterans day. I was unable to get out of work. To make matters worse, the shop is closed for the next week due to everyone going out of town for a bike fitting workshop.

So now I have to live with the knowledge that my beautiful new steed is sitting in a storage shed somewhere for an entire week. The weather is steadily worsening as well; we had heavy snowfall (luckily no accumulation) all day long today. I don't know what I was thinking ordering a new bike at this point in time. It's beginning to look like it'll sit in my living room all winter long, calling my name, begging to be ridden!

ARGH!!!

p2templin

We ordered a custom tandem (our first tandem, at that) in mid-January from a dealer four hours away. We were told (at least) five weeks to build, a week to paint, and a week for transit/build. As we got closer to pickup date, we kept wondering: how does it look? We went with an "ambitious" color and a unique paint scheme. But our dealer wouldn't tell us a thing! Buggers made us wait until we were in the parking lot - come to find out the builder made a YouTube so the dealer could see it before it shipped, two weeks earlier!

steve0257

Why would it sit in your living room all winter?

Neil_B

Can you get a trainer? I don't care for trainers, but many cyclists living in cold weather areas swear by them.

chefisaac

p2: why get a custom one made? Will be looking at some when my wife moves out here and will hopefully get her jazzed about cycling. IF you dont mind me asking, how much did it cost?

dcrowell

In the living room all winter? Put some studded tires on that bad boy (plenty of clearance) and have fun in the snow!

Mithrandir

Live in an apartment, so I've got no garage. Not keeping it outside because it's steel.

Mithrandir

I thought about it, but it makes no financial sense. I've already got an indoor exercise bike. Regardless, I've grown bored of exercising indoors, so I'll be snowshoeing and skiing come snowfall.

Mithrandir

So as it turns out I've misinterpreted things. They're still waiting on a few parts to arrive, and they were open today, but then they'll be out all next week. They built it up with everything they've got so far, and I stopped in today on my bike ride to take a look.



... It's a real good thing that I biked to the shop today. There's a chance I would have just taken it and shoved it in my car if I had driven!!!

Mithrandir

Still haven't ordered my panniers. I've narrowed it down to the Ortlieb packers; but I can't figure out what color. Blue, Red or Yellow? Any thoughts?

Likewise, haven't picked out the color of the fenders yet. I want the SKS Longboards but can't decide between black and silver.

Neil_B

Yellow. Anything that adds to visibility.

steve0257

I figured you would ride it this winter. Your winters can't be that much worse than they are here in Minnesota.

p2templin

My wife is short (5'2"), so to make room for a Thudbuster seatpost and a Topeak BeamRack that'll clamp onto her seatpost, it had to be a custom size (XS stoker). daVinci carbon frames are made-to-order anyway.

Hope you're sitting down for the numbers. Base price was $7900 (it went up recently), option pack 4 +$1300. I think it was $300 for custom XS, $375 for custom paint (but the caliber of the paint job was amazing!), carbon bars front/rear, better saddles front/rear, Look pedals front/rear, five bottle cages, and "the little stuff" pushed us to just a hair over $12k. Would I do it again? Absolutely! We truly love riding the bike - it's fun, it's comfortable, it's smooth, it's FAST (we've seen 54mph downhill, and it's helped our averages). Most importantly, we ride it. 2,000 miles (not bad for weekends only) since mid-March in Texas heat (or before it). We did our first century ever (for either of us, on single or tandem) last month.

The daVinci means either person can coast when they wish. (Common cadence when pedaling, but independent coasting.) Very essential in our eyes for stoker comfort. And an entry-level daVinci is priced at $3k, so it doesn't have to be as pricey as ours. Drop me a line at templin at templin dot org if you'd like to see pictures, or there's a few in my forum introduction at https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...-to-the-forums.

Mithrandir

I've never ridden in the winter before, in fact this is the first year I've ever made it to October and November. Because of this, I figure if I do ride, it'll be on my mountain bike, because I've heard that snow/salt is hell on bikes, plus if I crash I really don't want to injure my new steed

However, that being said, I probably will only ride until the first accumulating snowfall. As part of my weight loss plans, I'm fairly certain that I've plateau'd hard on the bicycle and would like to switch things up with other activities. I bought a pair of snow shoes in preparation for the switch, and I plan on doing a bunch of skiing as well like I did last winter. Hopefully the new activities will shock my system and prep me for more weight loss. So I'm not sure.

paisan

Did you ask them to "frame saver" the frame before building it up? If you're not going to get it back in time to ride anyway it might be worth asking them to take an extra day and get the inside of that frame sprayed down.

Mithrandir

I did not. Never thought about it. They don't typically deal with steel either...