New Investment

I have wanted a bike ever since I began cycling a couple of years ago. Moving to MN made me want a bike even more. I think there are as many miles of trails in the cities as highways. MN also has the scenery to go along with the trails, as most of them wind around the lakes. Well a couple of weekends ago, when my sister and her friend came to visit to do a triathlon, we did a cycle shopping. I did not know the first thing about bikes, and had no idea what I wanted.

Nothing really came from our brief shopping, except an even large desire to buy a bike. A few days later, Blaine broke down and spilled the beans (he can never keep a secret). Before I started all this talk about getting a bike, he was actually doing a little research of his own for a b-day gift me : ) But he figured that it was best I actually try out the bikes first to get an idea of what I want. Pretty soon he had the bike itch too, and we were both 10-ft deep in bike info. We went to a few bike shops and the cities and gained more knowledge. I really liked the feel of the road bikes, but I wanted to have a more functional bike that I could go trail-riding on if we go camping or anything like that.

Well last night we took a drive to Bloomington, and test rode some more bikes. Both of us ended up liking the Trek 7.5. It is a fitness hybrid, which means it is not as aggressive and fast as a road bike, but it is faster and lighter than a comfort bike. The guy at Penn Cycle was great. He ended up giving us a discount on everything we bought. Of course little did we realize how much extra things we were going to invest in – including helmets, padded shorts, gloves, pedometers, car bike rack, etc. We are going to look SOO fast - hahaha. We both switched our tires for ones with more tread so we would be able go on gravel, and I switched out my seat to a women’s specific. It wasn’t cheap, and it could have been a lot more expense, but we had already decided it would be our anniversary gift to each other. Happy early anniversary! Now I am just itching for another nice day like last Saturday to get out there and cycle! We plan on keeping these bikes for years, so I think the cost will be well worth it!

Steph's Bike

Blaine's Bike