Yesterday afternoon I grabbed the sliver of time between the end of our sales meeting and the start of our awards banquet to go for another test ride at Nytro; if you've been following along you'll know I have spent late afternoons this week happily experimenting with different bikes.  I decided today to re-ride the Pinarello FP3, my current favorite.  In the back of my mind I was thinking seriously of buying one, riding right home [metaphorically anyway] on that very bike.

Unfortunately the weather was lousy...  it was raining; serious quantities of water were passing through the air.  I was pretty amazed that the Nytro guys let me ride a brand new bike out there, but they did (thank you!) and I was able to get in a little cycling, man-against-the-elements style; rode from Encinitas to Del Mar, took this picture (click to enlarge!) and headed back, soaked but happy.

So where did that leave my quest?  Well, believe it or not, this ride was formative, because I realized I was probably motivated more by lust than love.  The idea that I wanted *this bike now* had taken hold.  I asked myself if I waited a week, what decision would I make?  And guess what?  (You will not believe this) I think I'm back to dreaming of an Orca.  I don't know why - some combination of the way it looks, the way it felt, the way it rode, and just the general idea of it; who can say?  (The way it makes me feel about me.)

This whole thing is so much like relationships with people; there are some friends you just like and you don't know why, but at bottom it is the way being with them makes you feel about yourself.

So this leaves me back where I started.  I did have a fun week of riding, and I did learn a lot about some really nice bikes, but I still don't have a bike, my Kestrel is still out being repaired with its future status uncertain, and I'm still not sure whether I'm going to buy a new bike and what I would buy.  Stay tuned...