April, 2008

While I’d been toying with the idea of buying a road-bike for quite a while now, the purchase was delayed due to two key factors: there is no clear safe cycle route between my flat and work; and the fact that getting a decent road-bike is costly business. The former reason, I will soon solve as I move closer to work; more importantly onto the other side of a very busy dual carriageway which connects this side of the city to the other. I was thinking of going ahead with the latter once I’d moved and sold my car, thereby freeing up some cash to make the purchase. An email received from my employer changed all that today.

It seems as if we are now signed up to CycleScheme, which offers a tax-free bike for work purposes which you pay in installments over a year through a salary-deduction scheme. The amount one can spend is capped at £1000, which allows me the opportunity to purchase entry level high-end good spec road bikes. With tax and National Insurance deductions applied and VAT discounts given on the bikes, you save about 40% on the RRP. The scheme is considered to be one of a hire-purchase, and at the end of the period, your employer ‘sells’ the bike to you for keeps for 5% of the initial price, meaning the effective purchase price is reduced by 35%.

Even without the scheme, had there been a pay-monthly offer over 12 or 24 months I may have been tempted to purchase a Trek or a Specialized, given a decent interest rate charge. Now it seems as if a gift horse is opening its mouth pretty wide; not only do I pay in installments, it works out a value that is actually cheaper than RRP, and I can get some kit added on to it as well: as long as I am within the £1000 cap it will be eligible for the scheme.

The point of this entry, apart from tempting others into academia (cheap(er) Macbooks, flexi-hours, cheap(er) bikes.. what are you waiting for Kuek?) is actually to ask for general recommendations (that means you, Adzim). I’ve narrowed my choices to one of three:

* a Trek 1.2 WSD
* a Giant SCR 1.5W
* a Specialized Dolce

All are within the same price range; and all are entry level bikes. For a few quid more (okay, maybe a few hundred, but still well below the £1k budget) I could opt for a Specialized Dolce Elite or a Trek 2.1 WSD. There seems to be no similarly comparable Giant model. A purchase of any of these plus say, £200 worth of clothes, would set me back about £50 a month for the first twelve months.

I’ve had a test-ride on the Trek and the Specialized, and the latter feels more comfortable despite the former having a carbon fork. Although I am told I will quite feel it if I am doing my 25th mile or so. Both models, however, feel a lot more comfortable than my previous three roadbikes: the first one bought from a senior and used at Uniten between our flats and the lecture halls and didn’t have brakes, the second a brandless model I bought at a bikeshop in Kajang, which I used to ride from home to UKM when I had to do research there during my final year; the third a Raleigh I used in Lancaster for a few months before the cranks died (the bike was given to me free).

If I do get the bike, I no longer need to worry about getting in early to go to the gym for cross-training work; and on weekends I can alternate the running with a couple of miles on the bike. That just leaves the weights which I do at home anyway. Yes, I am struggling to find reasons why I shouldn’t ditch my four wheels for two.

I can think of two cons: first the weather, and second, what if I need a car. Winter clothing, though, I can get under the scheme – gloves, jackets, etc. The latter, renting is an economical option. Selling the car will net me about £800 (modest estimate), but on top of that I also save £35/month on car insurance (although I will pay about £7 for bike insurance), plus at least £40/mth on fuel (potentially more given increasing fuel prices). This is going to be offset by the monthly payments made for the bike over the first 12 months, but there is that pot of cash from the sale proceeds to play with. Other savings will be in the form of the annual MOT charge (potentially £100 for a ten year old car), the road tax (£120 over the year) and car maintenance (at least £99 every six months for interim servicing). But of course there will be cycle maintenance to pay for as well.

So. Who is going to convince me this is a bad idea?

The solitary poster that never fails to catch a shopper’s eye at the Tesco’s round the corner from the Uni is now no longer alone. Today it had a partner. In a morbid way, a befitting partner. If the first poster had the smiling, cheery face of a boy; its new company has that of a girl. Faces that would not look misplaced on a Facebook profile, but while they may have come from those pages, they both shared a chilling common thread: they were both missing.

What kind of pressures would drive a teenager away from home? Was it intentional, or were they involuntarily led astray? What does it feel like to be a parent who, in their heart of hearts, know that it was some screw up on their part that led their offspring to up and leave? How many of us, as a child or a teenager, ran away from home after a spat with the parental units? If you did, was it in retaliation, was it a cry for help, a sign of insolence or a silent protest? And once you decided to return, was it because your anger subsided, was it because you were scared or was it because there was no other alternative?

I think about Sufiah, who chose as a teenager to distance herself from her parents for reasons she has yet to properly disclose. A calculated choice, a mistake, or a cry for help? I think about kids like me, who at 12, very eagerly left home for boarding school life. Were we running away from home too, albeit in a more controlled environment? A part of me thinks this really was the reason why I embraced (and I still embrace) being away very openly. In retrospect I think I knew I needed the space to develop as an individual; to find my own passions and my own sense of self.

It will hurt my parents immensely to know that I doubt that would have ever been achieved (assuming it already has) had I stayed at home all this while. Perhaps it may be a salve to them to then realise that being the person that I am, staying home for any longer may possibly have resulted in me harbouring enough resentment to never turn back once I’d left. As it is, my relationship with the folks have never been better: the distance has helped mend ties that at one point, frayed to a breaking point.

I suppose I was lucky with opportunities, as were many others of my cohort. I think about the faces on the posters, and silently pray that their being missing is one of calculated choice, with better pastures anew. I am an optimist because I refuse to believe the rather more probable, stark reality behind those grinning faces.

*****

Ayen, this is for you.

*****

To encapsulate the week past, sans the drinking, I offer you an excerpt of Auden’s On the Circuit:

Unless some singular event
Should intervene to save the place,
A truly asinine remark,
A soul-bewitching face,

Spirit is willing to repeat
Without a qualm the same old talk,
But Flesh is homesick for our snug
Apartment in New York…

It is back to work tommorow.