Recycled Bike — New to Me & Ready to Ride!

I’ve been talking about getting a bike now for close to a year. Finally on Friday I couldn’t take it anymore and decided to take action. I’d been randomly “bike shopping” on Craigslist for months. (Always the looky-loo and never the buyer.) I had a short list of bikes at the ready and when I got home from work I started calling. Lucky for me a UCSD student answered the phone and agreed to meet near the local mall in a well-traveled parking lot with– you guessed it– a bike! Even more lucky– the bike was in good condition and I decided to just go for it. So… $100 later and I was the proud owner of a blue mountain bike.

This thing seems to be “more bike” than I probably need but I’m slowly figuring out that 24 speeds and gears are all good things. My neighborhood has just enough hills to keep things interesting– and painful. Speaking of painful– I did have a few minor mishaps with the mountain bike. It’s a heavier bike and I accidentally dropped it on my toe (ouch!) and then tried to hop off and banged up my knee and leg (another ouch!). Considering I haven’t ridden a bike since I was in high school– so far so good.

The best part about the whole thing is– I bought the bike off Craigslist which means I got to “recycle” a bike. To me this was much better than buying a new bike.  And more cost-effective. I figure if I get sick of this one I’ll just sell it myself on Craigslist and swap out for a different bike. See you on the trails (or maybe the stores or maybe both….)  Stay tuned to see if shopping and mountain biking can mix!  Cheers!