Newbie - getting my first "real" bike, so excited

[Pax]

Way to go Erin!! Riding a bicycle is so simple and fun and yet so many of us gave it up in high school...rediscovering the joy is such a grand feeling!!

[annie]

Congrats, Erin! You sound so excited. Here's hoping for many, many wonderful miles on your new bike. Just remember - its very addicting! You will probably get hooked on a wonderful new sport for life! Yay!

Annie

[northstar]

Hi! Welcome!

And I've been looking at the Kona Jake, too! Looks like a great bike.

You're going to have a blast!!

[onimity]

Hi Erin,

I *love* my Kona (I have a 2008 Cinder Cone).

Like you I got my first bike in ages before that and wanted a good-quality bike that wasn't going to be too expensive. I got a Kona Fire Mountain (entry-level MTB) and I loved it too, but it got stolen this summer . Even the bikes at the lower-end of Kona's ranges are really great IMO and it really got me hooked.

I really want a Jake-the-Snake too. It's a great all-round bike, but I think it's pretty hard to justify since my mountain and road bikes go pretty much everywhere I need them to go, and I definitely wanted a Mountain bike.

Post a picture when you get your bike, and congrats! You will have some fun with that bike!

Anne

[SillyMia]

A BIG congratulations to you! I never rode Jake the Snake but I rode a Kona mtb down "the world's most deadliest road" in Bolivia, and let me tell you, those bikes can take a beating! I owe my life to a Kona's superior handling and brakes!!!

I just bought my first "real" bike yesterday!!! I went with the low end Trek (WSD), I LOVE IT!!!!! Can't wait to get back on!

[onimity]

Hey SillyMia... That's how I got sold on Kona too.

I hope you enjoyed the WMDR as much as I did!

Anne

[SillyMia]

Hey SillyMia... That's how I got sold on Kona too.

I hope you enjoyed the WMDR as much as I did!

Anne

NO WAY!!! Small world! Did you do Gravity Tours? Amazing trip, eh?

[firenze11]

Oh wow!

Thank you all for such a great, warm welcome. I've been babbling on and on about bikes to my friends and family for awhile and I think they're getting just a little bit tired of it. I'm so glad there is a place I can come and talk about it with a group of great women who know so much about the sport.

I'm also really glad to hear that Kona's get good reviews from some of you, especially if they can make a bike to handle "the world's most deadliest road!" It took a lot of time but I think the Jake is right for me. (Even though the Jake the Snake is so tempting, haha.) I can see how the sport and looking at bikes can be addicting. I remember the owner of the first LBS I went to told me the right bike would pick me and I think it has. Now I have lofty dreams of centuries dancing in my head. That will be a long way down the line, I'm sure. Baby steps, of course.

I'm so sorry I didn't respond to everyone individually, but thank you so much again.

Oh and I'll probably be posting pics of my new bike very soon.

~Erin.

[onimity]

NO WAY!!! Small world! Did you do Gravity Tours? Amazing trip, eh?

Yea, I rode with Gravity too, they were amazing. I had so much confidence in them which was really key on that road! Not to mention the hydraulic brakes!

There were some girls with another company that we passed who were on miserable bikes, probably the Bolivian equivalent of a Wal-mart bike, and they were still in their cold-weather clothing at the bottom, riding by themselves (guides ahead in a van). One girl's wheel was out of true and hitting her brake pads. Talk about scary!!! Our guide (who claimed to be able to diagnose any mechanical problem on a bike from 500 feet) stopped to help her repair it.

That ride was so amazing, it is up there with the coolest things I've ever done in my life.

Anne