it's...um...my mother's day present to myself?

UPDATE: It's here! It's here! Man, that was fast. The color's a little darker than I expected, but it's very pretty. Can't wait until it looks like a real bike. :)
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Yeah, so, last Friday? I bought one of these.

Not the whole bike, just the frame and fork. But when I'm done with it, it's going to look pretty much like the picture (except with different bar tape, because that light tan is icky. Maybe a red?).

Lest you think this purchase was impulsive, I started researching for the perfect utility bike about 30 seconds after selling my Pilot. It's not that I regret selling the Pilot exactly, since the carbon fork and seat-stays prevented me from setting it up as the kind of bike I wanted--racks, fenders, etc. Still, though I love Keiko with all of my heart, there are things I don't feel comfortable doing with her. Like riding in street clothes. Or locking her up in front of the grocery store. Or going less than 12 mph (unless, of course, we're climbing. Because I suck at climbing. Yes, still.)

So, sometime around September of last year, I started putting together an idea of what I wanted in my do-everything-but-race bike. After riding Rob's comfort hybrid a couple times, I knew that I did NOT want front suspension. I have no use for it, since I have no intention of going off-road and the network of bike paths I intend to use with this bike is entirely paved. I also didn't want a mountain bike, for these same reasons. I looked briefly at fitness hybrids, but the majority at my weight limit (~25 lbs)were all-aluminum frames. I don't have anything against aluminum, but after riding carbon it feels much harsher than it used to. Besides, I'm a roadie at heart, and like the feel of a road-style riding position. So I started looking at steel road bikes. Which are surprisingly hard to find anymore.

Oh, wait--let me back up and be honest.

While all of that is logical and entirely true, the real fact is that it was all thought up later as a justification. I fell in love with the Casseroll the first time I saw it, in pictures from Interbike 2006. It just looked so old-school, classic, approachable. And Salsa's chili-pepper head badge is too cute (*cough*). I had no real use for it at the time (and spent a good portion of 2007 trying to talk myself out of the bike lust), but the seed was planted. After I bought the Orca frame, that seed started to take root--I knew I would want a different bike for day-to-day riding and commuting.

I looked for Salsa dealers in my area, but there aren't any in my immediate vicinity (a couple in Houston, but nowhere close to my usual haunts). Then I got distracted by other things, built the Orca, sold the Pilot, and by the time I got around to considering a special order, the 2008s were released. And I didn't like them so much. Sigh.

Somewhere around January, I set up a recurring search in the bike section on ebay, just looking for "Salsa". It emails me once a week with all the listings, and for 4 months it got nothing I could use--skewers, seat post clamps, wheels, lots of 29er mountain bike frames. I think it found a Casseroll exactly once--and it was a 55cm. Then finally, Thursday night, I got the hit I was looking for--Salsa Casseroll frameset, 49cm. After about a minute of debate (which was mostly spent checking my bank balance and wondering if my shop will be mad at me for asking them to build yet ANOTHER non-shop bike), I hit the 'buy it now' button. It should be here by Wednesday. With any luck, I can have it built by July. I am so excited I can barely stand it. :)

(Confidential to Rob: I think this will be my last bike purchase for at least another year, but I make no promises.)