Hey, you're new! I love new people, welcome.

You may want to subscribe to Baby-Log via RSS feed or via email. Thanks for visiting!

BicycleIf you just got here the first time, a little background: in my last post our family was facing a big decision: whether or not we should get a second car. For a mix of health and wealth reasons the decision was that I should get a bike.

I don’t know about you, but I came to hate expensive purchases. Not just because of the money, but because of all the trouble associated with them. All the research, comparing options and models, reading reviews to find which one is the best, thinking it through, that kind of stuff.

I mean, I am busy enough to address every 15 minutes of my day as a valuable time-slot to get multiple things done. I had responsibilities and commitments coming out my ears before these new projects of buying new things came along and joined the crows. The more, the merrier.

Let me tell you a bit about the “before-kids” me. I wouldn’t leave one stone unturned looking for the best deal, I would go through every source worth reading and find all the reviews, believing that this is the only way to chose the ultimate best value for money. I would go through every store and compare prices until I was positive I am buying The Best Item for The Best Price.

Gone those days of perfectionism. I am now leaning towards simplicity, quicker thinking processes and embracing the “good enough”. And you know what? It makes my life easier. So with the bike I figured that I need all the basic systems to be of good quality, but I don’t want to pay for stuff I won’t be using anyway. I do need the speed gears to work well and the breaks better behave themselves, but I don’t need to have a super-light frame or dual suspension, because I am not planning on doing jumps or carrying the bike around.

With that in mind it was pretty easy to come in a big bike store and see what ranges of bikes they had. I picked one that had the same speed gears system as ones installed on the most expensive bikes, but with a heavier frame and without the super-expensive dual suspension. Asked them to replace the pedals with wider ones for comfort, took it for a test ride, and that was it, I found my bike. I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t check the prices in other stores, but I just couldn’t help myself :)

My takeaway from this shopping experience was that you do need to spend a bit extra to get a nice bike you will enjoy riding every day. The shop assistant that helped me was really young and an obvious fan of everything to do with bikes. While we were chatting about bikes and trails, I asked him why the model I am choosing is not that popular and he said: “Well, most people just get the cheapest bike they can find and then wonder why it sucks so much”. Quite a way to put it!

The other part of this takeaway was this: by comparing the bikes by price and asking: “What this one has that another one doesn’t, why is it more expensive?” you quickly find what the expensive components are and whether you need them or not where you will be riding.

One part of my way of getting around was solved – but the other still remained: how am I going to take Eric with me? Come back and find out in my next post.

Meanwhile, if you ride a bike – why did you choose that exact one?