Thursday, December 19, 2013

The Blue Colnago


Every once in a while a thing acquires immense meaning.

This happened when I saw the blue Colnago Dream HX on Craigslist a few years ago. In addition to the name, it was a dream bike. It was what we cyclists call a "pro-level" bike, and had been owned by a professional cyclist.

My life, it must be said, does not afford luxuries like a pro-level ride, but we had just sold a house. I had some cash from the sale. Yada.  Yada.  Ridiculous I know.

So I called the guy.

He was as nice a guy as walks the earth and needed to sell the bike. He had just gotten married and was now selling real estate in Tucson, where the real estate market had gone flat. "It sucks," he said, "and I need the money more than the bike."

He was willing to negotiate.

Now here is where it gets very dangerous.

I am a sucker for the "good deal," no matter the overall cost. It just has to be a bargain more than the right size, whether or not the thing is practical, or durable, or something I need or will use.

This hunt and hunger for the good deal came in equal parts from my poverty-stricken days as a student and the Lutheran frugality I inherited from my father. Classified ads, yard sales, thrift stores, fire sales -- these lit the consuming fires. 

There is something wrong here.

And the Colnago, fitting the category of a smokin' deal, became a scary possibility. This guy wanted to sell it, to me.

Some history for non bikophiles: Colnagos are high art. They combine style with function. Think Ferrari, Formula One racing cars. To a cyclist, they are a kind of Holy Grail.

They also represent all that is good on this planet: beauty, integrity, creativity, affluence, success, achievement, personal alignment of all aspects of the psyche -- mind, body, spirit.

It has to be said that these are the things I REALLY want. The blue Colnago just represents them.

It was also the perfect size, tracked like it was on rails, felt alive, and begged to go fast. The potential for speed designed into the bike is something I will never realize.

I had no choice but to buy it.


Or at least that's what I have told myself.

I know better. The bike is an attempt to bridge the gap between the me I want to be (fulfilled, happy, aligned) and the me I really am (underemployed, disorganized, frustrated, angry).

People who study this kind of thing know all about compulsive buying. It's rooted in the psyche more than in the need to have and use "stuff."

But the Dream HX is so beautiful. People think I am that person I want to be when they see me riding it.

Very well, then, at least I can pretend, for a little while anyway.

2 comments:

  1. fake it til you make it, dude. (-;

    and btw? you are that guy you want to be, really, deep down. the other is just surface dirt.

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    1. Kind words my friend. Thank you. It is wonderful to own some nice things, but I don't want anything to cloud what it is I really want. Got to keep the eyes on the prize (while enjoying the beauty of quality goods....).

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