~ Two New Wheels ~

I had not expected to actually purchase my third bike yesterday. Indeed, my plan was to go to the bike shop TODAY. Nevertheless, yesterday when I got off of work, I engaged in communication with a local bike salesperson who indicated that it might be a good time to look at some bikes. I rode my mountain bike to the bike shop and parked it outside. Inside, I proceeded to investigate the selection of cruisers, and most especially the new Electra Amsterdams. As you may recall from my fantastic post of yesterday, I was interested in a red Electra Amsterdam sport, not the blue Amsterdam classic. However, as I stood in front of the row of cruisers, one ladies blue classic, one men's black classic, one men's red sport, and one men's black sport, I felt myself gravitating towards the blue classic. Firstly, the blue is really something. It's not your normal everyday ho-hum blue - - it's this fantastic blue that I would imagine being on some old-fashioned dental equipment. So awesome! Secondly, the classic is more distinctive than the sport. There is a rack on the back, and I LOVE it. I am ambivalent about the skirt (which I removed upon purchase), but the rack is so wonderful that I could just lick it. And the sport has no rack. Also, the classic has a neat light with a tire-rubbing-generator-dealie - the sport does not. Sure, the classic is heavier (being steel instead of aluminum), BUT the classic also came with a BELL!!! No bell on the sport, yo. Seriously, how's the sport gonna ring my bell if it has no bell? pfft!!!

Anyroad, before I had actually become all excited about the blue classic, I gave it and a red men's sport a trial ride (there weren't any women's sports in stock because apparently these bikes haven't even been officially released yet). I did notice that the sport was much zippier, but yea, no bell, no rack, no light w/ generator, all dealbreakers. And as I shifted my gaze from the red sport (truly, a beautiful red and a good looking bike - - such a hard decision!) and the blue classic, I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something really special about the blue classic.

Then, I started to consider the logistics. Of utmost importance to me in having a cruiser was to place a basket at the front of the bike. The light on the blue classic limited all basket capabilities. I couldn't even get the basket onto the bike because the light was right in the way. What a stupid place to put a light on a cruiser! Everyone knows that people like to put baskets onto their cruisers. Anyway, I then began a discussion with my local bicycle connosieur about the possibility of moving the light. He examined the way that it was installed and we wheeled it over to a mechanical area. I exercised my mechanical muscles by removing a mud flap attached to the front fender (stupid, ugly, and dumb) and Josh rewired the light. He was able to move it down to just above the front fender, below where a basket would go (so that light and basket would exist in harmony), and we worked together on fastening the extra wire with some zip-ties. Please see the detail on the light and basket area. Another modification that I made was to remove the skirt attached to the back fenders. In theory, a skirt would be a fantastic addition (helping to prevent things being caught in the spokes as well as looking awesome), but in reality I wasn't very impressed with their functionality. The cheapo latches for them didn't fasten tightly to the fender and they kept popping off. I think that if one made the latches a little longer that it would work better, but after I removed the skirts entirely, I decided that I actually liked the way that it looked without them anyway.

Josh suspects that someone recently tried to steal my mountain bike because on my lock there is a suspicious point of damage. While I was at the shop last night, I decided to invest in a super expensive mini kryptonite u-lock. Of course, because I'm sleeping with one of the bike shop employees, I get a discount so everything was much more affordable for me. I did spend some good time thinking about whether to get some side bags to attach to the back rack, but I did not at all fancy the reasonably priced ones (mainly because they were ugly, and a big part of why I got this bike was because it was so beautiful - - so why would I adorn it in ugly accessories???) and there were some nice looking ones, but I didn't feel justified in spending $114 for them. So, no bags for me just yet. But maybe later when I save up my pennies and nickles.

Now, the hard part is thinking of a name of my beautiful blue wonder. I am entertaining suggestions. Another bike shop employee suggested Blue Betty, but I quickly shot that down.

Posted by jennifer at 8:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)