a new toy

For years now the missus and I have talked about it. Talked about how to fit it into our lives, how to fit it into our space (a one-bedroom apartment), how it would change so many things in terms of how we function both inside and outside the apartment. And finally, over the course of the past couple of days, a sequence of events led us here, now…

We are now the proud owners of bicycles. (HAd you going for a second there, didn’t I?)

Neither of us has owned a bike for at least 15 years, possibly more like 20. While we’ve rented bikes together (three times, I think) that’s been about the extent of our riding so it was a big plunge. After we rented bikes on Sunday (the third time IS a charm) we were certain that we wanted to do it, and we’ll just figure out how to deal with storing two bicycles in a small apartment.

We picked them up tonight and took a short ride around the neighborhood. I’ve got to get something looked at on mine as it was clicking a bit and not shifting gears quite right but we’re so excited.

What kinds of bikes? Well, we looked at a couple kinds – Raleigh, Jamis, Specialized and ended up with two Specializeds (Crossroads Sport) because it was the only one in stock even with the company. We lucked out because they actually had two in the shop they just had to do a bit of work on them overnight putting on fenders and such.*

Any tips for biking in the city?**

We’re hoping to be able to figure out how to get out of the city a bit and bike around the Palisades and such… It’s so exciting.
* Yes, we have the same bike but mine has a swanky basket on the front that I can clip on and off to run errands.

** Please do not read this as a request for scary stories – I had two bike accidents when I was younger, one that left me unable to walk for a week, and don’t need more stories than what I already have.