Bought a Bike

Chunlin and I took a bike ride from Redmond to Snoqualmie Falls yesterday. Or at least that was our plan. In actuality, we made it as far as . . . Redmond.

My borrowed bike's chain broke again as soon as I tried to shift gears the first time. I called Dad and he pointed us to the nearest bike shop. They sold us a new chain ($35) and said the bike really needs new gears, too. So I called Dad (see photo) to discuss. In the end, we didn't pay for the new gears, but rode it to REI with only the chain replaced.



At REI, we looked at new bikes. Since it's the end of the 2007 season, none of the stores have regular-sized bikes anymore. Plenty of extra-large and extra-small, though! The Redmond guy called Southcenter because they had a medium in the style I liked (K2 Mach 1), but it was on hold for someone else through Saturday night. I called Tacoma REI to put a K2 Mach 1 medium on hold. Southcenter REI put a K2 Mach 2 on hold for me.

This morning, I test-rode the K2 Mach 1 at Southcenter (the holdee customer didn't buy it yesterday). I don't like drop handlebars.

In short, four bike shops later, I bought a Marin Fairfax ('07) at the Seattle REI for $499. It's a flat-handlebar road bike. Chunlin chided me for the flat handlebars. Not hard-core enough! But it's what I'm comfortable with.