Purpose of this blog

I ride an aluminum frame full suspension mongoose Domain mountainbike. I bought it on impulse at a garage sale thinking "$75 for a mongoose is a smokin deal!" I wasn't aware until afterwards that Mongoose was now selling cheap stuff at Walmart. Back in my freestyle/BMX days, Mongoose sold really good stuff. Being a thrifty guy (married with two kids in private school, and still trying to save something for retirement) I'm going to ride this bike until it breaks, or just can't keep up with my abilities.
I will either dispell the myth that these "Walmart" bikes are junk, or prove it... either way, I have no ulterior motive.
As a side note, I did ride a $120 Target Pacific mountainbike on the same kind of trails I ride this one one. It survived 2-3 years of riding 3-5 times a week, and only has a bent top ring on the front sprocket, and maybe a bent spoke or two to show for it. My wife still rides it to this day.

Me and bargain hunting

If you haven't noticed yet, I'm a bargain hunter.

It's not that I'm poor, or that I'm cheap. I just don't like debt, and like to keep my money in the bank. I'm 38, and with the economy, job lay0offs, downsizing, the stock market, etc, I don't have enough to retire when I want to anyway. So, I try to live on a budget, but yet still not do without much. I pick what's important enough to spend money on. Plasma TV? Pfft. Nah... the 20 year old one still works fine for what little TV we watch. Lates greatest computer? This 10 year old one works just fine for me. Expensive clothes? Yea right... Brand new car? Nah. It'll just get scratched up anyway...

I've got an 85 Mustang SVO, that I've restored from a $500 heap. I've bought most parts used for it, traded labour or parts for stuff I need, etc.

I go to a lot of garage sales looking for stuff I need or want, or stuff I can flip on Ebay and make a few bucks. This is my "play money" and likely the money that will fund a new higher end bike if it ever comes to that.

We go on trips when and where we want. I'm looking for a deal on a canoe so I can take the kids out and treat them to something I loved as a kid. We live in a nice historic house in a nice neighborhod, but didn't bite at the huge amounts we could've gotten approved for. It's a reasonable home that we could pay for on one of our salaries if we needed to. Even though it's furnished from garage sales, or furniture I found tossed out on the curb, and restored, people would never know it.

I won't upgrade this bike unless I find a smokin deal, or absolutely break it beyond repair. So hopefully this blog will go for a while.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Well. This blog will be short lived... Turns out the Trek has some great updated parts on it with the headset and fork, and the frame is in great shape, so it's definately worth fixing up. I'm working some trades, and should have the Trek on the trail soon. Might get a couple more rides out of the mongoose before the Trek is ready. Then either the mongoose or the Pacific hardtail will be sold, and whichever one I keep will be a back-up bike, or one to let friends ride who are thinking about getting into it. The hardtail is proven, and has been ridden long and hard, so I'm confident in it's strength, even though it weighs a lot. The Mongoose is newer, but I think the quality of department store bikes has definately gone down in the last ten year. The old Pacific was beat on hard up at Town Run 3-4 times/week for 2-3 years, so it'll hold together for some beginners.
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