Where there's never a lack of broccoli.

Well I bought a new

Well I bought a new bike today. It's a Trek 7500. I had originally been looking at the Trek 7200, then decided I'd really like the 7500fx, which is a fitness model. I am planning to ride mostly for exercise, instead of doing my jogging, so I thought that would be good. I read a lot of really good reviews for it too, so it seemed good. But it was much more expensive and I didn't know about paying so much for a bike. But Sabrina and I decided that for something that is going to last quite a while, it was worth spending the extra money for something that was really good, rather than just ok. So I had looked yesterday to see which was more like I wanted, and whether it seemed worth the extra money for a 7500fx, and decided it probably was. The components are quite a bit better, and its a more streamlined bike. I also like having the thumb-shifts much better than the grip-shifts, which narrowed it down to the 7500 and the 7500fx. We went back today to make a final decision and I rode both of them around the parking lot a few minutes, and liked the 7500 much better than the fx version. In theory the FX is better for exercise, but it depends on you riding on smooth roads. The 7500 is a little more all-terrain, and has wider tires for a better grip. It can be a little more work to push it around, but not so much that it is an issue. The other big feature of the 7500 is that it has a suspension fork, and suspension seat-post, which makes for a very smooth ride on less-smooth roads. Since I've spent 28 years looking at potholes in New England, that was a big selling point. It was a really big difference in the parking lot, and I could tell it would be nicer in the long-run to have the suspension.

The people at the store are really nice, the owner was there today and is who we were talking to. He obviously really likes the bikes and knows what he is talking about. He was pretty salesman-ish, but clearly enthusiastic, which is really nice. The place has been around for quite a while. They also stand behind Trek bikes for quality. They will give 10 years of service if anything goes wrong with it, except things like flat tires. Anything else they'll replace if it wears out or breaks. You don't even have to bring it back to them if you aren't around, if you have to get it fixed somewhere else you can just send them the receipt and they'll give you back the money you paid.

So of course it was raining once I got it and I haven't been able to really ride around yet, but I'll try it out tomorrow. I had to get my helmet out of storage too. I had gotten a new one a few years ago and never even took it out of the box. Sabrina brought her bike to get a tune-up and will get it back on wednesday, so we can both go riding together, which will be fun.