All the questions that I should have asked when buying my first bike.

[hebe]

I hope your tour goes well! I'm very excited for you.

I can't believe that I've changed my mind even since starting this thread I had no idea that even going just a little bit more offroad would be so much fun. I think you're right - ambitions extend even faster than ability - which is a wonderful thing really.

I'm starting to wonder about transporting the bike too. DD will start at a nursery one morning a week after Christmas, and there is access to a National Trail just a few hundred yards away... I'm already thinking about driving her to nursery with the bike on the back then hitting the trail for a couple of hours before collecting her again. I guess in January that won't be happening often, but after Easter she will increase her hours to 18 a week, which is a lot of riding! For me, anyway.

[Melalvai]

IDid anyone else start out wanting one kind of riding then change their minds?

Ha ha! I've been a die-hard commuter for 5 years with NO interest in any kind of racing. Last month I was introduced to the Triathlon and I am completely hooked. So I'll be buying a road bike, when I can scrape enough money together!

[hebe]

Updating! Hopefully I'll have bike funds in place soon from selling my alto sax (my main instrument is tenor sax but I have a secondhand alto as a spare). The alto is vintage and should sell for enough to buy a new bike and have sufficient funds left over to pay for a year's worth of lessons on my tenor. I'm better at the tenor anyway

So once the sax is sold I'm going to try an entry level Specialized Myka, and anything else that the two shops that I have easy access to have in my price range. I think that will be Specialized, Giant, and Marin brands. My Marin will be kept for a sensible shopping/errands bike, and will eventually carry dd too, though I'm in no rush for that. A mountain bike should hopefully keep me riding off-road and up the hilly bits through the winter and will be absolutely no-compromise unadulterated me time. No rack, no panniers, no shopping, no child (until she's old enough to ride with me).

Good luck Melalvai!

[sandra]

OOOOOOOhhhhhhh, I love the Therese....but then again, I DO have this mixte addiction (but I can stop at any time!) It is a gorgeous bike! That's what I'd go for!!!

[hebe]

It is beautiful, but I don't think it's an off-road bike. Plus they never answered my email asking for the pricing range

[Bike Writer]

Updating! Hopefully I'll have bike funds in place soon from selling my alto sax (my main instrument is tenor sax but I have a secondhand alto as a spare). The alto is vintage and should sell for enough to buy a new bike and have sufficient funds left over to pay for a year's worth of lessons on my tenor. I'm better at the tenor anyway

So once the sax is sold I'm going to try an entry level Specialized Myka, and anything else that the two shops that I have easy access to have in my price range. I think that will be Specialized, Giant, and Marin brands. My Marin will be kept for a sensible shopping/errands bike, and will eventually carry dd too, though I'm in no rush for that. A mountain bike should hopefully keep me riding off-road and up the hilly bits through the winter and will be absolutely no-compromise unadulterated me time. No rack, no panniers, no shopping, no child (until she's old enough to ride with me).

Good luck Melalvai!

How thrilling! You've settled in on a biking style, I peeked on line at the Marin and Specialized mountain bikes, they're sharp looking. Hooray for you for discovering your niche...once you settle in on a model and make please share with us.

[Vanilla]

I bought a cheapy £200 bike from Halfords back in May. I started cycling again for the first time in seventeen years and was unsure about how much I would enjoy it and also how much I would actually use it. I started off by promising my boyfriend that I'd only go around the park and the quieter streets of where I live. Quiet streets in central London! Ha! That soon turned into cycling to work a couple of times a week and now I'd love to do London to Brighton/Paris and perhaps the Coast to Coast I'm not sure that I'd buy a different style of bike from the one that I already have as I love it, but never say never. My uncle is desperate to get me into mountain biking and going out with him but it's not really worth moving back to Scotland just for that

[buffybike]

And for crazycanuck's viewing pleasure, a screenshot of the Therese:

Who do you DO THIS TO ME???!!!! Just when I had committed to saving money...