On April 20, 2008, I purchased a new bike to replace my old bike, which was stolen from the secured parking garage underneath my apartment building. I didn’t want to spend too much money on it, given that the previous bike had been stolen so quickly. And I was sufficiently paranoid about the whole thing that I don’t really like letting the bike out of my sight outdoors anymore.
I had already decided, when buying a new bike, that I ought to get things right. I already had identified a number of comfort and other issues. I wanted a rear rack. I wanted to get really really powerful lights because I found the dinky lights I had picked up previously weren’t up to snuff.
I also decided that I couldn’t emotionally deal with going into the same bike store as last time and very likely picking up the exact same bike.
So I shopped around. I ended up going to Performance Bike. I did learn, afterward, that Performance Bike is not a good place to buy a bike or bike equipment. That everything Performance-branded has failed is pretty good proof about that.
The Fuji is different from the Trek. It was slightly higher end, but marked down. It came with two bottle cages and a rack already bolted on. The Fuji didn’t have riser bars, it had flat bars and bar ends. It didn’t have twist-grip shifters, it had trigger shifters. The gear range was a little different. All of these, I think were improvements.
The Trek didn’t get enough riding for me to know if it was more or less reliable.
The Fuji came with toe clips and quill pedals. The toe clips just didn’t work out, not with my sort of shoes. The wheels were also poorly constructed.
I got a cyclecomputer, so I could see how far I was going. And I went farther and farther than I’d ever been before. I could make it maybe ten miles before. Now I’m doing longer and longer distances. And I can keep up with the roadies in my bike.
I guess the two year anniversary of when I started cyclecommuting, which isn’t going to happen until June 26 won’t be quite as meh.