my new bike!

The day we returned from our get away, Terry took my bike to the shop to have it looked over and then did some browsing at the shop since we were interested in purchasing a new bike. After Noah went mountain biking a month ago on my bike, we realized that it would be a bit silly for him to take his bike on the Middle School Bike Trip this summer. It's too small already and he was more than capable on my bike. 

So when Terry returned he informed me of a bike that was for sale on clear-out. We texted David, who is a bike expert, and all went down there to check it out.

It turned out David had this exact same bike years ago and loved it. 

I liked the bike because of the larger 29 inch tires (mine were 26 inch) - you can see below my old bike on the left compared to the new one on the right. Apparently 29s make it easier to climb the hill and get over rocks - more power. Everything else was also far superior to mine - the brakes, the shocks, the frame, etc. When I rode it around I felt like I had more control, it just felt better. Really, all that should be unsurprising since mine was nine years old and it never was that great of a bike. The only thing I was worried about was that it only had one gear in the front and ten in the back. This makes changing gears super simple since it's one handed. However, I typically ride in the first gears in the front and back so I worried that I wouldn't have enough easy "granny" gears. David, who has seen me ride, along with the shop owner convinced me that I could handle it. 

So we bought it! How's that for an impulse buy?! It was a great deal and a wonderful bike.

Me and my new bike! I was a bit in shock until I took it out the following day.  

My first ride was amazing! It was a quick ride on the Storm Mountain cross country loop but it can't even compare to what it was like to ride my old bike. After every ride on that one I was completely bankrupt of energy. I was so absolutely and completely exhausted. This time I was flying along rolling over things I certainly didn't before. I wasn't as tired and I had a lot more fun. No longer was I worried about not having enough gears. I love my bike!

A week later we all rode M Hill after dinner. They'd all rode these trails tens and maybe hundreds of times, but I haven't. We did one called Wild Turkey and then came down on the west side. Again, I had a fantastic time. I was hard on the uphill, but not nearly as hard as before. At the top we stopped to enjoy the view and take a photo. I didn't even know any of this was up there!

Me too, blocking the pretty cliffs.

This is looking out west to the hills and was where we posed below... 

There we are: Jazmin, David, Denise, Zeb, me, and Emma.

Terry had the idea that I keep track of every single ride I do on my new bike. Maybe I will!