When the biking bug bit me I was quickly able to share the love with my two best friends (aside from my husband, of course) who I grew up riding bikes with when we were in middle school. They ride with us the most and Joel, in particular, shares our love of road riding and my sense of bike lust. Kelvin, is more of an off-roader but recently tore his Achilles heel and as such is out of commission for quite a while. He did our late-season ride with us, all 48 miles of it, on his incredibly heavy, dual-suspension mountain bike. So shortly after I fell in love with cycling they each bought their two new bikes: Joel, his Giant hybrid and Kelvin, his dualy MTB. Then I got my husband to buy one too and he bought a Fuji hybrid. (Even on my road bike he pretty much is always ahead of me.)
Our other friend, Hannah, told me earlier in the week that she was interested in perhaps getting a new bike. She is my height and she told me that what her budget was and I told her what she would be up against with such a limited budget and I told her that she and I should keep an eye on Craigslist. We passed a few e-mails back and forth over the week and last night I saw something that would be perfect for her: a 20″ Giant hybrid in her price range. She went to go see it and ride it and is now the proud owner. She reported to me that her first ride was 2 miles and that she learned she needed to switch gears on hills. When Hannah told me and our friend, Deb, that she now had a bike to ride, Debbie responded that maybe she would hang on to her hybrid rather than selling it as it has been forsaken in a storage unit somewhere. My other friend, Lindsay, whose coworkers have gotten into riding also has a forlorn bike somewhere waiting to be ridden. So I am determined to get these girls out riding with me one day. I am setting the weekend 2 weeks from this past one and Hannah says she’s all for it. Lindsay is booked till mid-June and no word from Debbie yet. But Hannah has a bike and is out riding it and that’s progress. I’ll keep you posted.
