I lasted about five minutes, then I turned to the two guys standing next to me.

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“I’m getting back in the SUV. It’s freezing out here.”

Welcome to shopping online – as in trolling through the dubious pages of who knows what is real looking for a bargain.

My buddy’s goal was a new-to-him bicycle. He’s spent years riding here, there, and everywhere. A couple of weeks in France and Holland. “We were riding next to the trucks in France until someone asked us why we weren’t using the miles and miles of bike paths.”

He humped it along the U.S. west coast from Canada to San Franscisco – before that nation went batty. “You haven’t lived until you’re trying to push 50 pounds of gear strapped to your bike to the top of a hill that goes on for miles.”

And he spent five weeks crossing New Zealand from the top of the north island to most of the way down the south island last year. “We had to take a train to Christchurch. The road we were supposed to follow was closed. Landslides.”

OK then.

But a bike perfect for leaning into wind and hills – there is always a wind when riding with him, which is why I nicknamed him Headwind – is not ideal for a group ride on a relatively flat, paved road.........

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