svs updates
Well, like I mentioned last time, I signed up for cyclebytel.com's service. And, true to their word, I started
getting emails telling me that there had been bids made on my request.
Unfortunately, though (didn't you know there'd be an 'unfortunately'?), when
I gave them my email address, I used my standard convention of doing
"littlec+whatever@sfgoth.com". Everything between the + and the @ gets
filtered out by my mail server, so I just use it so that I know who's sending
me mail. So, therefore, cyclebytel has my email address as
littlec+cyclebytel@sfgoth.com. No problems from my end -- I get their emails
just fine. Here's the problem: in order to view my bids, I need to log in
on their website. Unfortunately, the form cgi on the login page is sort of
half smart -- it knows to strip out non-standard characters, *but* it never
encodes them or puts them back in after the form submit. So when I try to
log in as littlec+cycletbytel@sfgoth.com, it strips out the "+" and queries
the database on "littleccyclebytel@sfgoth.com". I think y'all can see the
problem with that: there's no such user in their database. *sigh* So I
get all the emails telling me that dealers are making bids, but I can't log
on their website to actually see the bids or which dealers are making them.
Feh. I sent cyclebytel an email about this, and hopefully it'll get fixed.
If not, I'll have to create a new account (without the +, grrrr), and that'll
cost me another $7.50. Hopefully whoever reads my email over there will be
clued and understand the problem.
nighthawk updates
I bought a nice new watch today to put on my instrument panel. This one
is water resistant and has a big huge button right on the front for the
indiglo. I also got some velcro to attach it onto the bike, but I haven't
actually done it yet, since I was consumed by The Sims all evening. I hope the watch isn't too big for
the spot on the panel that I'd like to stick it. I guess we'll find out.
I also got a nice little cat sticker for the bike -- a svelte looking black cat (not like lard butt) with the lettering "i do bad things." Now I just need to find somewhere on the bike to put it. Hee hee! Peter and I were stickertastic at Hot Topic -- I also got a black cat sticker for my snowboard, and he got a Power Puff Girls sticker for his. We're so trendy.
I got an email back from the guy who does motorcycle caricatures, and apparently he still does drawings. He said he'd never drawn anyone with blue hair before. :) I'll email him back tomorrow and hopefully, I'll have a cute little picture of me and my cutie soon (er, the mechanical cutie. Not the boy cutie or the furry cuties.). :)
I guess there really wasn't any actual content to today's entry. Oh well. I should be riding to work next week; it's not supposed to rain. *knock on wood*.
late-breaking news.
So when I entered my mailbox to send out the "yet another pointless boring
entry!" email to the bluepoofbikes list (kinda makes you want to
subscribe, doesn't it?), there, waiting for me, was an email from the cyclebytel guy.
He was clued! He was polite! He changed my email in their database and
seemed to know exactly what I meant, and said he'd fix the problem! Huzzah!
I love clued people.
So, the good part: the bids! I have three bids back from dealers now. The first one has a waiting list on the bike, and gave me a sales rep's phone number to call if I want to be put on it as well. Their price is the flat-out MSRP at $6199. Dealer number 2 has the bike in stock, and for $500 off the MSRP, putting it at $5699. This kicks ass. It's, sadly, the dealer in Salinas which is 70 miles away, but it's still pretty damn tempting. Dealer number 3 has the MSRP as their listed price, but their note informs me to "call Ernie" for the "guaranteed lowest price anywhere!!". Only it was in all capital letters. And "guaranteed" was spelled wrong. And the dealer is in Sacramento. Bzzzt, sorry. Try again.
So, we'll see what happens, but right now, I'm pretty happy to drive down to Salinas in order to knock $500 off of the MSRP and be able to pick it up whenever I want. Or have them ship it to me -- Peter's pretty excited about having a brand-new bike shipped here in a crate. It is pretty tempting. Hrm. I shall have to inquire into this.
