Grumpy Gus moves out. Depressed Derf moves in

For those of you that know me fairly well you may know that some of my engineering friends have nicknamed me “Grumpy Gus.”  I don’t remember the exact evolution of this name but I have to credit Pat G. with it.  Anyway, Grumpy Gus left on Wednesday night and Depressed Derf has moved in.

Instead of reading a race report from Tabor on Wednesday night you’re going to be reading about the shattering of dreams.

Either Tuesday or Wednesday I came up with this great idea: next summer when I graduate I was going to take the summer off and do nothing but race and enjoy myself.  I’ll most likely graduate without ANY debt so I’d have that flexibility.  Also, I haven’t taken a summer off since graduating high school.  I know this seems like a short period of time (and it is) but instead of flying all over the country and world visiting people and doing cool things I’ve always been working to pay for school and support this expensive habit I call cycling.  My thinking was that I’d just be in Portland, race, train and explore this crazy city I’ve never experienced to its full potential (Pedalpalooza anyone?).  I knew I could make the jump to Cat 2 early in the season and if I’m really lucky Cat 1 by the end of the season and maybe get recognized by one of the bigger teams (Hagens Berman, Rubicon-ORBEA…) and pulled in there but that’s a long ways off. 

Ok, I’ll get to the story.  On my way back from racing at Tabor (a surprising 6^th place on legs that felt like crap) I stand up to pedal away from a stop sign and *snap* *cruch*.  My wheel stops.  This has sadly happened enough for me to know it’s a broken chain but I didn’t realize how bad it was until I look at it the next day.  Broke derailleur (expensive but not irreplaceable) and bent the derailleur hanger.  I know, you can re-bend the hanger but this one is REALLY bent (think 45 degree angle).  The next day, I bring my bike into my shop and do my best to straighten it but a slight tear appears in the aluminum…and it’s still not straight.  I give up and bring it in to a local Scott dealer.  They look at it and say it’s shot.  Verdict from them:  nothing they can do and since I’m not the original owner they won’t do anything.

Friday:  I spend almost an hour on the phone with Scott trying to convince them to warranty the frame, hook me up with something off the blem-list, offer me a crash replacement, ANYTHING.  Nothing.  I understand them protecting themselves but I am a mechanic from another shop, I’ve been a good ambassador for their product (at least 6 sales of high-end Scotts are a direct result of me riding them) and they won’t help me at all.  Well, so much for Scott. 

Now I’m faced with several options:

1)       Say “screw road” and focus on cyclocross (go ahead and buy the team cross bike I'd already planned on)

2)      Do something financially stupid like buy an equivalent frameset to the Scott

3)      Fix the one I have

4)      Just buy an ‘ok’ frame and live with it

If I go with #1 then I feel like I'm half-assing it.  #2 will make me feel the best in the short term... #3 is smart but I need to replace the frame soon anyway so why spend more then I can get out of it? and life would just suck with #4.  If you know me and my relationship with my bikes you'll understand.

So what do I do?  

Already emailed a bunch of companies to see if they'll hook me up but I'm not so sure I'm ready to spend the money for a complete cross bike on a new road frame...

maybe...??