Rocky mtn high

No bikes.

Just backpacks, snowshoes, bad headaches, gasping for breath, beautiful scenery, a sweet log cabin, good friends, and good times.

Four days at 9,000 to 12,000 feet totally kicked my ass...and I loved it.













































































How do you know when you need new hiking boots? When your heels still look like this 4 days after hiking, it's a pretty good sign that new boots would be a good idea:

Doping in NASCAR?

Fuel Doping that is.

NASCAR actually has quite the inspection process to bust cheaters...and unlike cycling, it's not a "random" test, or a test just for those who are getting good results...every car is tested before and after every race.

Is this the future of competitive cycling?

Would you be willing to go through this to help the fight against doping in cycling?

GTB Product Props #1

This cold weather is making me stir crazy. Yet I just can't motivate myself to leave the house and go to the gym, so I've opted to stay in, watch tv or dvds, drink wine, and blog a little more. Last weekend Pete and I headed to the family cabin for some R & R, and I decided to pack only my most comfortable, warm, cozy clothes. So I started thinking about all of my favorite clothes, shoes, and chick products. And so begins my first installment of "Got the Bonk Product Props"...giving props to all of those products that have generally made my life more comfortable. In most cases, these will be products I've come across after trying similar products that I didn't like.

Since most of the people reading this blog are cyclists, it only seems appropriate for my first props to go to a cycling product...and that product is Craft clothing. I don't know what I ever did before I discovered Craft base layers. I had heard about Craft clothing, but when I looked into buying some, I realized it was pretty expensive, so I put it off. Then one day a few years ago, I went to Hoigaard's only to discover they were having a big sale, including a sale on Craft base layers. So I bought a Pro Zero Zip Mock base layer, and my cycling life has never been the same. Once I tried my zip mock, I wanted more - I did some Internet research, and found discounted Craft clothing online at Sierra Trading Post, so I loaded up. Craft base layers keep you warm when it's cold and cool when it's warm...they're amazing. And, I love my Craft winter wind tights too...Pete gave them to me for my birthday a few years ago, and that was the first winter that I was able to ride outside...my legs never get cold with those things on!

Here's a quick bonus product prop: after trying a plethora of saddle bags, I finally found the perfect one for my needs - the Pedro's Micro Blowout Bag - it only holds the bare essentials, and stays out of the way...I love it.

Possible future product props:

• Cycling: shoes, sunglasses, chamois cream, sunscreen, helmet, shaving cream & razor, etc
  
• Chick stuff: moisturizers, makeup, shampoo, clothes, shoes, undergarments, etc
  
• Home: kitchen utensils/appliances, vacuum cleaners, coffee, alcohol, etc

It's getting to be a long winter and I'm bored, so if you have a favorite product you think I should try out, send me an e-mail: gotthebonk@gmail.com. But be prepared for me to blog about it whether I like it or not.

I hope it warms up soon...before this blog goes to complete shit.

Strats

From the comments section

Lynne posted a comment on my last post (which was about waif-like models) that I think is worth following-up on, because I agree, it is a serious issue. She says:

Serious issue here. Come on, you can't tell me that you didn't grow up with the pressure to be so thin that your bones protrude? All the fashion magazines I remember as a teenager emphasized this image. That has an impact. There must be other women out there who were exposed to that (80's and early 90's) and have a hard time accepting it's not a good look? How many of us have checked to see if our hipbones stick out further than our stomachs? How many of us have felt better about ourselves if we looked in the mirror and saw our clavicles without shoving our shoulders forward? How many of us permanently now stand with shoulders hunched forward from practicing that as a teenager to get "The Look"? If you can say that you weren't and aren't influenced by that, I think you are in the minority. Really, would you look at a realistic nude photo of a woman which shows her real cottage cheese thighs and/or cottage cheese butt and think it looks better than the woman who's so thin that doesn't happen? I'm just being honest here; I think people right now want to jump on the righteous bandwagon, but it's not necessarily the look they would prize for themselves (I'm not saying you are one, I'm speaking more of the fashion industry right now).

I understand that Lynne isn't referring solely to my opinions, but I thought I'd share my experiences on this topic. First, let me clarify a few things about my teenage years. I can only speak for myself here, but I wasn't really exposed to many fashion magazines as a teenager, and we didn't even have cable t.v so I wasn't exposed to any of those fashion shows on MTV and the like. Don't get me wrong, I knew that being thin was much more fashionable than being a "healthy" midwesterner...I wasn't that naive, but generally speaking, fashion was not something I knew much about. Plus, as a pre-teen, I was one of those sporty, lanky, skinny kids - so while I may have been teased for wearing my Lee jeans from Fleet Farm instead of the much more cool/fashionable Guess or Esprit jeans from the store formerly known as Dayton's, I was never teased about my weight (which I know can be traumatic and life-changing for some kids). But once I hit puberty, I started getting all kinds of curves that I wasn't comfortable with, and I added quite a bit of poundage. But I can honestly say that I've never looked in a mirror to see if my hip bones stuck out further than my stomach (although now I will!) - again, don't get me wrong, I was certainly self-conscious about my new curves, my new ponch and my new weight as a teenager (and as an adult), but I guess I never knew about the hip bone/stomach relationship. Nor did I ever once pay attention to my clavicles. I recognize that teenagers are much different now - it's clear they have much more pressure on them to be thin and fashionable. And perhaps I was in the minority as a teenager - if so, I give all the credit to my parents and my friends during those years. My parents never pressured me to be thin, but my family was very active and there wasn't any time of the year that I wasn't heavily involved in sports. And all of my friends were the same way. We didn't spend much time (if any?) looking at fashion magazines or shopping for tube tops, mostly because we never had time - we went to school, went to volleyball/basketball/soccer/softball/etc practice, traveled for games and tournaments, and a lot of us had jobs (I started working when I was 16). And for the record, when I was in high school, I weighed 20 - 25 pounds more than I do now...same goes for a lot of my friends from junior high/high school. In fact, the nights we had away-games during basketball season, we'd go to Subway before we got on the bus to travel, and we'd each buy a "meal deal" - foot-long sub, chips, cookie and a soda - dinner #1. Then we'd play our game, and go out to eat at a fast-food joint on our way home, so we'd eat dinner #2...and ice cream. So long-story short, no, I did not grow up with the pressure to be so thin that my bones protruded. And I'm extremely thankful for that. That kind of pressure came later in life for me...the college years...although I still don't recall ever wanting my bones to protrude. I lost a lot of weight during those years, but those were the unhealthiest years of my life.

And yes, while I hate to admit it, it's true that I'd rather see a nude photo of a thin, non-cottage-cheesy woman than an average/normal woman with some hail damage. It sucks that I feel that way, and it sucks that woman expect men to think differently as well, but it's the truth. But here's the thing - I'd much rather see a nude photo of a fit, muscular female cyclist (or other athlete) than of any thin model with zero muscle-tone. And I'm going to guess that even most of the men reading this blog would agree. (e.g. Do you see the photos that Skibby posts on his blog? He's always posting pictures of hot women, but rarely are they uber-thin and waif-like.)

It's true that there is a lot of pressure for women to be thin - I don't think anyone, male or female, would argue that. And yes, that pressure can sometimes be devastating for women, especially teenagers. But I think there's a huge difference between being healthy-thin, and model-thin. My point for posting that article was that the women in those pictures looked sickly-thin/emaciated, and it's hard for me to fathom that some clothing designers and fashion magazines actually find that attractive and desireable. So I give props to anyone in the fashion industry, a la the aforementioned Spaniards, that are trying to take relatively small steps to make that industry more healthy (e.g. requiring a BMI higher than 18).

I'm curious what kind of "pressures-to-be-thin" other women have experienced. Anyone care to share?

And then there's the obesity epidemic in our country...an even bigger problem...but I'll save that for another day.

Strats

Bring it

I'm sure all of my loyal blog readers are relieved that NASCAR season is finally upon us. Yes, that's right, this weekend is the Bud Shootout, a pre-season race for all of last year's pole winners (plus previous Bud Shootout champions), and guess who's on the pole? DJ in his Prius, er, Camry. So it's time to see how the controversial Toyotas will fare in their NASCAR debut. Not sure how I feel about DJ's paint scheme for this race - although it is kind of LGResque with the crazy bright-colored numbers. There are only 21 drivers in the Shootout (as opposed to 43 drivers in a normal race), and both of "my guys" are in it. So are Dis's guy, SR's guy, Kongsley's guy, and Petey Pablo's guy. And I think it's safe to say we'll all be rooting for the Little Guy, the man with the best hair in NASCAR, Boris Said. (Note: I knew Dis was a Said-Head, but I didn't know he had taken it this far last year.)

Shake and Bake.

On a different note (which couldn't be any more different than NASCAR), I read an interesting article today titled "Why Skinny Models Could Be Making Us Fat" - as you can probably guess, the article is about all of those waifs you see on runways and in fashion magazines. There were also some photos associated with this article (click on the link to "Photos: Dangerously Thin Models") - if you don't have the time or interest to read the article, just look at the pictures because they say more than the article. I've never seen so many protruding clavicles - and I've seen my fair share of broken ones after bike crashes (including my own). The article says that models weigh about 23% less than the average woman. I did some follow-up research after reading this article, and read that many models are about 5'10" tall, and weigh about 110 lbs. Holy shit, that's crazy. I also read that when they want to lose weight fast, they go on Diet Coke and lettuce diets. Are you kidding me? The Spaniards were on to something last fall when they decided to ban models with BMI's of less than 18 (i.e. if a model is 5'9", she must weigh more than 123 lbs).

I wonder what Pat's BMI is? He was just telling me last night that he's getting fat. Maybe he meant "phat".

I gotta go eat...three heads of lettuce and 3 diet cokes may start to fill me up. Sounds like a good recipe for a big 'ol bonk.

I'm bonking

I'm bonking and I'm not even on my bike.

I had a hard workout week last week that ended with a 3-day workout bender - hard night at the gym on Thursday, my first spinning class ever (taught by a friend) on Friday night, and a 3-hour ride outside on Saturday morning when it was crazy windy and the windchill was biting. I followed that up with too much alcohol over an extremely fun dinner with friends on Saturday night and then I hit the wall on Sunday. And I've spent this last week fighting a looming scratchy throat and headaches while working long hours at work trying to meet a deadline. I've been drinking the EmerGen-C's and tea, and sucking down Halls Defense like nobody's business, but I keep waking up feeling the same. I'm starting to think it's stress induced.

The one thing I really dislike about bike racing is that I always feel guilty when I'm not training in some way, shape, or form. It pisses me off. I shouldn't feel guilty about that, but I totally do. Unfortunately, the nature of my work requires that I occasionally have to work some long hours to meet deadlines. I like my job, so that doesn't bother me, except for the fact that long hours at work is not conducive to training. So I find myself stressing out that I'm trying to meet a deadline, and then stressing out that I'm not working out, and then stressing out that I'm stressed out about bike races that aren't until April! I'm just not good at this whole "balance" thing - I honestly don't know how people can balance a full-time job, families, and training/bike racing all at once. And I even live with someone who seems to do a much better job with it than me, and even gets some good race results come racing season. I just get tired of not having a life outside of work or cycling. I miss my old life sometimes. And I'm just a Cat 4 - is it really worth all the time and stress just to be able to keep up with the other Cat 4's?

There are times when I go without riding or training for a few days, and I enjoy the things I get to do in lieu of sweating my ass off, and those are the times that I tell myself that I need to be done with this whole bike racing thing soon. Then I'll go for a ride that weekend, and I'll remember why I'm not ready to give it up just yet. But damn, I feel like I'm too old to be trying to squeeze so many things into one day, one week, one year.

But today Dis was the savior because he sent out the final design for our sweet new LGR kits! So this morning I may have been ready to give up bike racing, but then I saw the kits, and I realized that I'm really excited about this season, even if it could be my last.

Morning

They say you need 8 hrs of sleep...I need at least 9.
I'm definitely not a morning person, but I'm not really a night owl either.
I don't wake up to an alarm unless absolutely necessary...
Instead, I just sleep until I'm ready to get up, which is usually between 8 and 8:30.
When I do need to set the alarm, I wake up many times during the night in panic that I've overslept.

I always maximize my sleep time - I sleep as late as necessary, then get up and get ready to go to work in record female time.
During the work week, I don't mess around in the morning - while I want to ease into my day mentally, I physically just want to get up and out of the house as quickly as possible.

So when I finally get up in the morning, I want to be left alone for that mental ease.
I don't like sharing the bathroom or the closet - stay out of my way or deal with the consequences.
I don't like morning chit-chat (at home or at work) until the coffee's had a chance to kick in.
I purposely wait until my roommate is gone in the morning before getting out of bed...it's better for both of us that way.

I'm lucky to have a job with flexible hours.
They seem to understand that letting their employees work the hours that suit them best is much more efficient, and the company benefits from that.
But I still have to bill my 40 hrs every week, so that means that I normally work later at night.
Which is fine and dandy until race season rolls around, and I have to be at Opus by 5:30.

I actually worry about being a bad mother because mornings are so painful, and kids don't care what time it is.
People with kids say your schedule will change, but I'm skeptical.

One recent morning, I decided to go to the gym before work because I had something going on that night.
It was a good idea in theory.
At one point during my workout (at 6:30 am), I thought how nice it would be to do morning workouts on a regular basis.
By the time I was done, I thoroughly regretted my poor decision.
I could hardly function all day, and that two hours of missed sleep affected me for two days after.

I'm sure there are plenty of non-morning people out there who embrace their anti-morning-ness, and just deal with it.
But I've always wanted to be a morning person, so I can't seem to let it go.
Yet I'm apparently not willing to do anything about it.
So perhaps it's time to embrace.
I'll think about it over coffee.

What the?

In the past few months, I've had four friends get their car stolen - 3 Honda Civics stolen from Minneapolis, and one Honda Accord stolen just today in St. Paul. And a few weeks ago, a co-worker was car-jacked (at gunpoint) in Uptown. And a friend of a friend was also car-jacked recently in Hopkins (the guy opened his jacket to show that he had a gun). What the hell? And then there's all the bike theft...including one of mine a while back. And every night the news stations report that there was another murder. I've heard that crime in Minneapolis is significantly up, although I'm not finding any really good valid statistics through Google. Smithers must know. Maybe Tuffy? Someone please provide me with the statistics that I'll regret having asked for. Is it really getting as bad as it seems or am I just being paranoid (I've been known to do that)? I realize crime in Mpls isn't half as bad as some other large cities, so don't give me that whole lecture on growing up too sheltered. I'm just saying that it seems to have gotten noticeably worse in the past year, and I'm just wondering how much worse.

Happy New Year

Here's what I look forward to in 2007, in no particular order:

1. Moving into a house with a lot of bike storage
2. Helping my nephews learn to ride their new bikes
3. Celebrating my parents 40th wedding anniversary
4. Racing for Little Guy Racing
5. Finding a new hobby that has nothing to do with bike racing
6. Downer's Grove
7. Superweek
8. Girls Weekend in WI with all of my lady friends
9. Snow-shoeing with friends in CO (since they actually have some snow)
10. Traveling to Europe again
11. Cheering for the #44 and #9
12. A new Masi!
13. Reading more stories about The Donimator
14. Scrubs

Some things I'm not looking forward to:

1. Finding and buying a house
2. Having most of my weekends filled with training and/or racing
3. GU to avoid The Bonk
4. Trying to keep my blog updated more than once a week
5. Karla moving
6. Riding circles at Opus
7. Temps below 20 degrees
8. Trying to get back in shape after two weeks of non-stop eating and no exercise

Here's to a happy and safe New Year!

Strats

"Tim M"

Karla meets coaster boy Tim M.














Tim M and cousin Derek meet the women behind Karla's phone service.














I found this picture from Karla's party last year....those two guys look suspiciously familiar...

Sunday's ride

~4 hrs of riding, 1 flat tire, and one bonk.

I wasn't very happy about Pete taking this "aftermath" picture at the time, but I was too tired to do anything about it.

But it was a beautiful day to be out riding with LGR and friends, so it was totally worth it.

MCF & related topics

So there's quite the discussion going on about the MCF on some of the local blogs. At the risk of opening myself up to much ridicule, I'm going to chime in on this discussion here at Got the Bonk, but before I do, I'd like to list a few of my qualifications for the skeptics out there - my resume doesn't quite look like Skibby's or Smithers', but it's better than nothing:

• I am a MN Cat 4 bike racer on the new Grumpy's/LGR club
  
• I volunteered for a plethora of races before I even started bike racing, and I have volunteered for a bunch since I started racing
  
• I am the co-founder of the local Velo Bella club and I promoted the State Crit/Campus Crit for two years as part of that club (and helped promote a third race, the Withrow TT)
• I attended almost all of the MCF meetings while on Velo Bella (~ 3 yrs), and never once left early (not that I have a problem with that)
  
• I helped start Midwest Women's Cycling Made Real (MWCMR) last year, and I kept track of all of the points for that series throughout the season
• I am involved with planning for MWCMR for next year
  
• I was part of the 3-person committee who started StartBikeRacing.com (and I created the original website which is now being updated by StevenCX)

So I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I think I'm entitled to an opinion or two, and I'd like to share a woman's opinion since it seems most of the people posting comments on this MCF topic are men:

1. While I agree that the MCF should do more to help race promoters, specifically first-time promoters and/or new clubs, I think that promoting/encouraging new racers, especially women and juniors, still deserves some attention from the MCF.
   
• Women's racing here in MN is not like men's racing. Imagine rolling up to the line for your very first race, along with only 10- 15 other women, and when the race starts and you're trying to clip into your pedals newbie-style, Teresa attacks. Your race is done before it really even started, and this is not uncommon for a women's race here. Women's Open races do not promote growth in women's cycling. Or imagine doing an Opus race with only 6 - 12 other racers - there really isn't any such thing as "sitting in", and "tactics" rarely come into play (unless 5 women on one team are ganging up on the other 4 women who are all on different teams). The MCF was involved in helping start MWCMR which provided Cat 4 only races for women. Like Cat 4/5 races for men, women's Cat 4 races are an integral part in growing women's cycling, and while MWCMR has made some progress and hopefully will continue to make progress, the MCF has helped make that happen...both through funding and support.
  
• While the StartBikeRacing.com initiative hasn't gone as far as we originally planned, I still think there's more that can be done with it, and it could eventually serve it's original purpose - to provide general cycling information (e.g. licenses, rules, types of races, etc.), to provide information for new racers to make racing less intimidating, and most importantly, to connect new racers with local clubs. We did recognize that getting people on local clubs will give them the support system and encouragement that they need. The StartBikeRacing.com initiative has also been funded and supported by the MCF. (note - sometimes it's difficult for a lot of the experienced racers to remember what it was like to be a newbie)
  
• Juniors - I'm no expert on juniors racing, but there are currently very few racing in MN. Why is that? I'm not sure what the answer is here - but I do know that I was a very athletic kid, yet I wasn't exposed to serious bike racing until I was in my mid-to-late twenties. Cycling is expensive, it's not a high school sport or even a club (with a few exceptions), and very few kids get exposed to it. The junior discussion used to come up a lot at MCF meetings, and the bottom line was just that there were no "adults" willing to volunteer their time to help out with the juniors program (after Banning left). Dag has done a great job this year, but I'd like to see the MCF sink something more into a juniors program - any ideas?
  
2. Race promotion
   

• I think it's great that the MCF is willing to consider the "First Time Race Loan" that Super Rookie had proposed. When we first started Velo Bella and wanted to promote the state crit, we had $0 in our bank account (like Cat6, VB doesn't have membership dues). A few teammates and I had to front a lot of the money with hopes that we'd be able to get that money back. Amongst many costs, the police for the race (which is required by the U of M) cost $600. We were lucky enough to have a big cash sponsor (which was awesome, but is obviously not the norm), but we didn't get that money until after the race. That first year, I was truly amazed/overwhelmed by the costs and efforts that go into race promotion.
  
• I didn't know what the hell I was doing the first year I promoted the state crit - but I was lucky enough to have one of the previous promoters hold my hand through the whole thing. I think it would be great if the MCF did more for promoters, but what are your ideas? They've been doing the "Promoter's Clinics", and I attended one of those before promoting the state crit the second time around, and I thought it was really helpful...so I'd like to see the MCF continue that, but what else? If you think that race promotion is the biggest thing the MCF should be working on, what are your ideas?
• I don't have any great ideas (just yet anyway) for doing more for race promoter's, but I'd love to answer any questions about race promotion.
  

Personally, I'd like to see the money that is spent on the MCF banquet go towards other initiatives - race promoter clinic(s), juniors, MWCMR, StartBikeRacing.com, etc. As I mentioned above, a lot of these things have been funded the past few years and I think the MCF is on the right track, but could do more. Do we really need a MCF banquet every year when there's other seemingly more important things to fund? It seems like the banquets are just for those people who feel strongly about ROY, CRY, TTOY, and TOY...but I admit I could be wrong about that. I have been to the last few banquets, and while Bob Roll was awesome, I think one really good speaker every 2-3 years (if that) would be sufficient.

One last thing - I know this has been said before, but if you've been to the MCF meetings over the years, you know there's one common theme - there are not enough volunteers to help make all of the great ideas come to fruition. Say what you will about the MCF, but remember that everyone on the MCF board is a volunteer - and most of those people have been volunteering for years. I'm by no means saying that there's not room for change/improvement...of course there is, but cut these guys some slack.

Strats

NYC

I haven't been riding (or blogging obviously). I've been working and hanging out with my sis and her husband in NYC.

Where's Waldo?










The infamous tree.












(Dis)pencer's favorite car.










Three rich NASCAR guys.










One rich multiple racecar owner,
two not-even-close-to-being-rich
multiple bike owners.










Since Pete, my sister, and I were standing behind the #48 car, we ended up getting in a bunch of the official photos from the photo shoot outside the Waldorf Astoria before the big championship dinner (Pete's in a white t-shirt, I'm in black, and my sister is the one in the cream-colored sweater next to me). The funny thing is that we just happened upon this photo shoot. Needless to say, I was so bummed that Kasey didn't win the championship...or anybody besides Jimmie Johnson for that matter. But it was still kind of cool. Jimmie is short in real life (which must mean that Jeff Gordon is approximately half my size) and he seemed really awkward, and his wife needs to eat some donuts. Rick Hendrick was kind enough to take a photo with us. And as soon as he turned his back, Pete informed me that Rick Hendrick was the recipient of a presidential pardon (by Clinton). Sweet.

And you thought NASCAR was over...

Recognize anyone in these photos (besides Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus)?



























These photos are from Yahoo.com. More personal photos to come...(Dis)pencer should have been here.

The beginning of an era...

Since the Little Guy recently got hit by a car while riding his bike, I figured this would be the perfect time to honor him by revealing the much-anticipated sweet new LGR kits. If this kit doesn't scream "Little Guy", I'm not sure what would. Like Super Rookie said, "Stars. Baby. Stars."

The end of an era

The 88's getting left behind, but I still look forward
to watching DJ racing in a brown Prius (or whatever)
next season!

2006 racing season revisited

After witnessing the MN State Championship Cross race last Sunday, I'm happy to announce that the 2006 MN bike racing season is officially over. Props to everyone who did the race on Sunday...that is a hard course. I rode out there early Sunday morning (before the race) with Pete and Patty Cakes with the intention of doing a hot lap, but I decided that there was no need for me to climb the hill, run through the Creek, or run up the stairs. I thoroughly enjoyed watching a few cross races this year - don't get me wrong, I missed not racing CX just a little bit - but generally speaking, I'm glad I had the cx season off, and I had much more fun watching than I would have if I had been racing.

Looking back on the 2006 racing season, there are definitely a few races that stand out for me. The highlight of my season was my first (and only) win at the track. Granted, a few of the big dogs were missing from the women's field that night, but it was still the highlight of my season (and my cycling career) since I had never won a race before (and haven't won one since). Another race I really enjoyed was the early season crit I did in Neenah Wisconsin in May. It was the first long crit I'd ever done, and it was one of my best races. I also thoroughly enjoyed the big pack riding experiences at Superweek...I'll definitely be headed back next year. What is strange is that my best/favorite races all took place out of town (with the exception of my one glorious night of track racing). I'm not sure what that means, but I'm hoping to do better at the local races next year. And while crits are my favorite, I realize I'm going to need to train better for road races as well.

Speaking of the 2007 racing season, I'm currently in southern MN recruiting for LGR. More on that later.

On an unrelated yet equally important note - for those of you who enjoyed my blog more than usual when I was in France, check out Eye of the Beerholder - Chadley now has his own blog, and I'm looking forward to it. Although it took him a month and a half to get it going, so I'm a little nervous about how often he's going to post...he may need some encouragement.

Strats

Car-buying Part 2: The Research

The first step of my research was to consult Consumer Reports, so I paid my $26 annual subscription fee, and went to work. I found the information to be very helpful and was amazed at how accurate it was. For example, the Honda Civic is one of Consumer Reports highest ranked cars. The only thing that was rated "poor" on the Civic was the exhaust systems for '97s, '98s, and '99s. I just happen to have a '99, and I had to replace my exhaust system a few years ago. And that's the only problem I've ever really had. The new car I was looking at was a Consumer Reports "recommended" car and after reading their rankings and road test results, I was more than satisfied.

The next step was Edmunds.com - and this is where I found the mother load of car-buying advice. If anyone reading this is considering buying a car, I highly recommend that you read the series of articles on Edmunds.com called "Confessions of a Car Salesman" - this dude went "undercover" for Edmunds and became a car salesman and the information he provides in this series of articles is extremely valuable and sometimes almost unbelievable. One of the things I learned about in these articles was that car dealerships now have "Internet Sales Managers" (I realize this may be old news to some of you, but I haven't bought a car since 1999) - and your typical floor salesman does not like it when someone enters the dealership and asks for the "fleet manager" or "Internal sales manager" because typically that means that the customer has done all of their Internet research. Which leads me to step 3...

Step 3 was using Edmunds.com "Free Price Quote" tool. Using this tool, I just entered in the make and model of the car and my zip code, then all of the local dealerships that sell the car I was looking for popped up. Then I just entered some info (like my e-mail address) and choose which dealers I wanted to send my "price quote" to, and hit "submit". Within hours, all of the dealers I had chosen starting sending me their price quotes via e-mail. And I couldn't believe it...their initial quotes were $1,000 less than the sticker price at the dealership. While the price quotes were coming in, I used Edmunds to get a "True Market Value" (TMV) report. This report lists the MSRP price of the car (including any add-ons you may want) and the destination fee. The TMV also lists the invoice price for the car (and any add-ons) so that you have an idea about what the dealer paid.

Step 4 - I started e-mailing the Internet Sales managers back. In their initial e-mails, they all said "have you driven the car yet?" and "we should set up an appointment for you to come in and drive the car and talk" - they were trying to lure me to the dealership, which is exactly what I didn't want to do since I realized that I was actually feeling like I was the one in control. So in my responses, I started dropping names - e.g. "I know you said you were giving me the best price in the state, but dealer X offered me this much lower, and dealer Y offered me the same price plus a bonus package." One dealership started getting whiny about what the other dealership was offering, and the others kept trying to sweeten the deal....and this was all via e-mail. I had everything in writing. It was awesome. And I was actually having fun.

The 5th step would turn out to be the key step in my research process - I phoned a friend. I called a friend/car saleswoman and I talked to her about the offers I was getting and she told me exactly what to do. Long story short, I offered to buy the car from one dealership for $200 less than invoice (plus some discounts on my add-ons), and much to my surprise, they accepted my offer. In the end, I got the car and add-ons for about $2,000 less than the sticker price. I was satisfied.

Still to come...Financing with Mr. Slippery and Lessons Learned.

LGR update

I've gotten a few more questions, so I thought I'd share:

What do the LGR kits look like?
Oh, they're cool. Think they're not? They're very celestial.

Does the Little Guy really have hairy legs?
You tell me:












I haven't seen Tuffy out riding for a while, is he doing some secret training?
Only the monkey knows.

So I see that Time is one of your sponsors, does that mean Smithers is joining LGR?
While that would be a natural fit, I think Smithers prefers to race against Super Rookie at the track so that he has something to talk smack about. But maybe if Ped joined, Smithers would reconsider.

What do some of the LGR member's tattoos look like?
I'm glad you asked. Guess the LGR team members:












































Are you really getting a tattoo?
No mom. No Pat. But I would like a NASCAR belt buckle.

What's the most number of piercings that a LGR team member has?
I haven't taken a poll yet, but I'm told there's one team member that has eight...so that might be tough to beat. Although rumor has it Gilby's going for nine.