I Want to Ride My Bicycle

Uh, so I guess I'm bicycling now.  Here's the story - for Father's Day, I got this nifty little thing.  Which, cool and all, was really an excuse for me to get myself a halfway decent bike.  So I did.  Hmmm, I guess it's a short story.

No derailleurs and only two exposed cogs.  Fantastic for the maintenance averse like myself.  The internal gear hub is odd though, you have to lay off the pedals in order to change gears.  Fortunately, I haven't biked much so I am already in the habit after two rides.  It is quiet.  Maybe because I've never ridden a decent bike with quality gearing, but I do remember a lot more mechanical noise with regular geared bikes.

The usual complaints with internal gear hubs are meaninglesss to me.  Apparently there's a bit more drag than in a derailleur system.  I'm no road biker, and I honestly did not notice.  Plus my previous ride was terrible.  I can coast at least an order of magnitude further on the new bike.  Next issue - IGH's have a smaller range of gears than in the usual system. But LEAFS SUCK is pretty flat, and the lowest gear allows me to climb just about anything in my neighbourhood.  The highest gear is too high - I've switched to it a couple times but only to get a feel of what the resistance was.  Plus I don't think I'll ever need to go that fast.  Finally, IGH's make removing the rear wheel more complicated.  But to be honest, if I got a rear blowout or had some other issue that required removing the wheel, I'd be taking it into the shop, whether it was IGH or derailleur.  Heck, I'm not all that comfortable taking the front wheel off and it's a quick release.

And the Kangaroo Carrier?  Ultra Ninja likes it.  Even on a commuter/hybrid bike, which is a stiffer ride than my toddler would like.  This turns out to be a minor issue because with her on I can rarely go fast enough for it to be an issue.

PS This is a placeholder post.  I'll try to get some pictures this weekend - weather permitting.  It figures that the day after I get a new bke, we get a heat wave.