Best Bike Buying Advice, EVER!

[OakLeaf]

My matching shorts could say "load."

I just have to remember to tie a red flag to my *ss...

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I just have to remember to tie a red flag to my *ss...

NOTE: Don't do this while bicycling by a pasture of bulls.

[beccaB]

I need a very expensive flute before I get a very expensive bike. ( I'm doing a 180 from where this conversation was going, but wanted to put in mt 2 cents anyway) I love my $500 hybrid bike. It has made me a lean, mean fighting machine. I get carded for beer, but that's usually when the sign says " we card everyone under 40" A young man at Foot Locker had my liscense in his hand because I wrote a check and he says to me " there's no way you were born in 1961!" I am better, faster, stronger, and less ugly than I was at 18. Not that it should matter to anyone.

[Veronica]

I showed the OP to my honey this morning. He laughed and said, "Men are stupid and like big b00bs." Then he reminded me that genetically men are programmed to find women of breeding age attractive. It doesn't mean that older women aren't attractive. Then he had to tell me how well I'm aging.

He also said that if a man is checking you out, it really doesn't matter what bike you're riding. It's not about the bike...it's how you look in spandex. Finally, he thinks this thread is worthless without pics.

Veronica

[beccaB]

pics of what- bikes I assume?

[jobob]

You have trained him well, grasshopper.

[Aggie_Ama]

I think all you 50+ women should add a picture of your bikes.

[Biciclista]

[Aggie_Ama]

Mimi never needs much coaxing to post her gorgeous bike!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I am better, faster, stronger, and less ugly than I was at 18. Not that it should matter to anyone.

Don't forget wiser.

Personally, I think I look way more beautiful now at 54 than I did in my 20's or 30's. My husband agrees. We both seem to get more attractive and sexier every year...(or at least we think so!)

[uforgot]

Mimi never needs much coaxing to post her gorgeous bike!

And I never get tired of drooling over it.

[Zen]

I didn't even have a bike when I was twenty so I'm automatically way better looking now!

[jobob]

LOL, ditto.

Smurf, on one hand I feel bad for your plight. Mid-20's can be rough.

But on the other hand, here you are expending lots of bandwidth bemoaning the fact that you can't afford a fancy-azz bike, and subtly cutting down those of us who can.

Well, guess what honey, when I was your age I couldn't afford that kind of stuff either. I'll venture a guess that many of us here couldn't.

In my mid 20's I was a very po' grad student, living in a drafty rental house with a bunch of other po' grad students and even more mice . We could barely afford the heating bills and winters in Boston were cold. And there were times when I was very, very unhappy.

So while I empathize to some extent with your plight, another part of me says suck it up and work towards building a secure future for yourself, and eventually you'll be able to afford the goodies that you so desperately yearn for now.

Yeah, maybe you won't be the sexy young thing you are now by the time you can afford them, but well, them's the breaks.

[redrhodie]

When I was 20-something, I lived in a "one bedroom" apt in NYC that had a bathtub in the kitchen. I built a loft in the "bedroom" that fit a twin size futon, and hung my clothes underneath, because there was no closet. The window in the "bedroom" which was probably the only reason it was not called a "closet," looked into another couple's apartment, where I could see them having sex, which they liked to do standing in front of the window. Maybe their bedroom was too small for even a twin size bed!

I had no bike. I had no credit card, because back then, you had to have credit history to get a credit card. It was a smart catch 22, which kept us from doing stupid things like spending more than we earned.

I had student loans, and made just enough money to pay rent, bills and eat. Then, once I had to start paying my loans, I got a roommate so I'd still have enough money to eat. That roommate is still my dbf now, 18 years later.

20s are hard. We've been there, Smurf.

[sgtiger]

Mimi never needs much coaxing to post her gorgeous bike!

And I never get tired of drooling over it.

It's even more gorgeous in person, especially with Mimi on it!