I bought me a mountain bike
Yes, after years of following timidly, albeit bravely, behind my trail-busting buddies, after numerous lung-popping hill climbs on my too-heavy trekking bike, after many popped tires from traversing difficult terrain, I've finally bought an honest-to-goodness mountain bike.
It's an GT Avalanche 2.0, a 2006 model with rim brakes and a RST Gila Plus-SL front fork (one reviewer called them a "piece of poop") that I got a good deal on at my local bike shop, Cykloservis U Tyrse at Jaselska 29 in Prague 6. Mate, the friendly English-speaking sales guy, sold it to me for 9,590 Czech crowns, or about $450. Good deal? I know it'd be cheaper in the United States, but everything costs more over here.
So far, I've only ridden it about .3 kilometers from the bike shop to home. I'm still sick. I can't wait to take it out on some muddy paths.
I discovered two things while looking up reviews of my new bike on the web.
First, it sounds like the perfect bike for me, a beginning to intermediate mountain biker who's not going to do too many crazy things on it.
And secondly, I am far removed in expertise and experience from most of the bikers writing reviews out there (see the above reference to the RST fork). They're always talking technical stuff about which I have no clue. Perhaps I'll know more about what they're all talking about after a few weeks on the trail. Still, I'm not leaping off rock ledges or doing Evel Knievel leaps across mountain streams.
I just go riding, for fun and exercise, and when something breaks or doesn't work right on my bike, I take it to the shop. Except a flat tire. I can change a flat tire.
It's an GT Avalanche 2.0, a 2006 model with rim brakes and a RST Gila Plus-SL front fork (one reviewer called them a "piece of poop") that I got a good deal on at my local bike shop, Cykloservis U Tyrse at Jaselska 29 in Prague 6. Mate, the friendly English-speaking sales guy, sold it to me for 9,590 Czech crowns, or about $450. Good deal? I know it'd be cheaper in the United States, but everything costs more over here.
So far, I've only ridden it about .3 kilometers from the bike shop to home. I'm still sick. I can't wait to take it out on some muddy paths.
I discovered two things while looking up reviews of my new bike on the web.First, it sounds like the perfect bike for me, a beginning to intermediate mountain biker who's not going to do too many crazy things on it.
And secondly, I am far removed in expertise and experience from most of the bikers writing reviews out there (see the above reference to the RST fork). They're always talking technical stuff about which I have no clue. Perhaps I'll know more about what they're all talking about after a few weeks on the trail. Still, I'm not leaping off rock ledges or doing Evel Knievel leaps across mountain streams.
I just go riding, for fun and exercise, and when something breaks or doesn't work right on my bike, I take it to the shop. Except a flat tire. I can change a flat tire.
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