The fall and school season is upon us now and if you’re like me spending time on your bicycle is more than just a summer fun thing to do.  I use my bike for just about everything travel related in the fall as my car is only used on the weekends.  I recently purchased a beautiful Trek 7.2 FX and retired my old Raleigh by giving it to my nephew.  It served me well for many years.  However, my new Trek is completely fantastic and “reasonably” priced at $549.  It’s still a financial bite but since I have all the other accessories, that’s my only cost and this bike will last a very long time.

I researched several bikes in this price range such as the Cannondale Quick 4 and Quick 5 as well as other well known names but found the Trek to be the one that fit my lifestyle the best.  Believe me, all the bikes were fantastic and it was a tough choice as each had features I liked and all the prices were within $50 of each other.  For me bikes are not like cars where I need the perfect color and all the right stuff before I make my purchase.  I need it to do what I need it to do and everything else is secondary.  Plus, I’m afraid that if it draws too much attention because of how “beautiful” it looks someone will steal it no matter what lock I use.  I half think to myself that I should beat it up right after I buy it so it looks old and unassuming, but I would never do that this incredible machine.  Wow!

This summer my wife and I really used our bikes and we joined Map My Ride.  I strongly suggest to anyone who likes to go for bike rides, stop for lunch and explore as well as riding on vacation to join this site.  Don’t worry, it’s FREE but you can upgrade to different plans on the site if you want to but it’s not necessary.  We mapped many rides and had a blast riding and going on mini adventures and we mapped a few rides with some friends as well.

What I like about Hybrid bikes is that you can load them up with all kinds of goodies.  I added a kick stand to my Trek and I already had a quick on/off rack for the back.  You can buy a little carry case for shoes, swim trunks and towels, snacks and all sorts of smaller but useful items.  I never thought I would be the guy who had a bike rack but this summer we used it on every ride and we were gone all day at times.  We rode our bikes to art fairs and farmers markets as well as some longer rides in northern Wisconsin on a short vacation. I did all this on my Raleigh and now that I have the Trek it will be even better.  My wife has a UniVega Hybrid and it’s fantastic as well.

The only thing I bought along with my Trek was a better pair of riding gloves.  My old gloves had seen their day.

Jim

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