Back Bay Trail in Newport—part of my commute!
I’ve had ridiculously bad bike luck of late.
I’m sure y’all remember Snaccident 2014, in which I crashed my (mom’s) red Gary Fisher into a parked car due to snacking while biking, ripping open my knee and busting their headlight. Cool. So to replace said red Gary Fisher, I headed to Surf City Cyclery, and purchased my Specialized hybrid for $600 that I loved … remarkably similar to red GF, that in fact the awesome surfer bro at Newport Velo managed to fix up Gary for a mere $60—for fork, tune, and new tires. That guy rocks.
Which turned out to be extra important as a year later, when new Specialized got stolen out of my garage. Posting about my plight on facebook, a friend gave me his Giant hybrid— a lovely bike I promptly rode to The Chicken Coop, locked up outside, left overnight, and returned for on foot to a sad, wheel-less, seat-less frame. Oh.
Back to old red I go, and Gary is great. But given that I am biking 11 miles to work 1-2 days/week (22-44 miles/week, not even counting biking to football on the weekends!), I wouldn’t mind a more up-to-date version of my commuter (Gary is 18+ years old!). So to research I go.
First, I thought I’d just buy my Specialized again. But then I realized there are other hybrids out there, and also realized that I need to define my needs: comfy, relatively thick tires so I don’t easily get flats, light enough to hoist, gears because the more I ride, the more hills I realize there are on my commute. So now I’m thinking Diamondback (which honestly I thought was all mountain bikes) because they offer my company a deal …
References:
thecoolist.com/best-commuter-bikes
… opinions, anyone?