Monday, August 30

HH100 Report - Shopping Like Hell

Winter Gear from Hotter 'Hell Hundred Shopping Expedition
People that have gone to the Hotter 'N Hell know there are some pretty good deals to be had if you shop carefully and are flexible in what you want to get. Clothing sizes in between "S" and "XXL" sell out pretty quickly, so you are well advised to look for these things early. Other items vary widely in price depending on the particular seller. For example, the "Cateye Vectra Wireless" computer varied between $25 and $40 depending on where you went.

Shoes, on the other hand, seemed to be a hot ticket this year, at 50% off list. I really regret buying my Sidis at REI, though my old shoes were pretty worn. I thought about geting another pair, but these ones will probably last until next year's HH100. Knowing my luck, nobody will have shoes on sale next year.

One item I was able to do well with was WINTER GEAR! Yes, at the Hotter 'N Hell, there was winter gear getting closed out and nobody was looking for it. I snapped up a really warm pair of winter gloves and some heavy duty shoe covers that look like they'll be very water resistant as well. In passing, why is winter gear always black? Don't these manufacturers know it's dark a lot in the winter? Ah, well, I guess I'm destined to wear "high vis" black. I also hunted for rain gear, but there didn't seem to be much. Maybe next year will be the year of rain gear closeout sales.

One thing I suggest you pass on. There are lots of insulated water bottles for sale. ON THE OTHER HAND, during the ride, you can pick up water bottles along the route. Just carry one of your own for your own use. Most of the sellers take debit or credit cards, but I recommend good old fashioned cash. The checkout lines are shorter for those with paper money.

One strategy I employed with my LBS mechanic, was to simply go up and ask him what he thought was the absolute best deal on anything they had. I scored a $10 Bontrager multitool, marked down from $30. One can never be too rich, too thin, or have too many multitools.

Three-Seater Co-Motion Was For Sale Again This Year

6 comments:

Pondero said...

Nice score, Steve. The foot and finger protection is going to be nice to have pretty soon.

Be glad you bought black, it makes you look thinner.

Unknown said...

thanx... I'm looking for more trade directory like indiamart.com for generate my clothing business accross the world.

Tracy W said...

You'll enjoy those booties. For me, they're good to down about 32 degrees. That will probably be plenty for your warm clime!

Apertome said...

I have similar, if not the same, shoe covers. They work fairly well, although they have stretched out and sometimes pop off my toes. Probably due to too much abuse when mountain biking.

Gotta love buying stuff in the off-season ...

Big Oak said...

I don't mean to be cheeky, but how do you know the gloves are warm? If it's 100 degrees, isn't everything warm?

Steve A said...

This is Texas. In Texas, they run the AC in August at about freezing. Besides, I'm not from around here. I KNOW what good ski gloves feel like and these are warm, but not THAT warm. If I were clueless, I'd look at the thermometer which says they're warm.

I don't mean to be cheeky back, but up north, do they let you take the gloves outside just to make sure the gloves are warm before you plunk down money?

Post a Comment

No Need for Non-Robot proof here!