Buying a Bike!

I currently live in Sydney, Australia. Sydney has a great rail network, and buses are frequent and cover pretty much the whole city. In 7 weeks time I will be moving to Leamington Spa, UK. Leamington has a railway station, and there are buses. Basically, public transport is not an ideal way of getting around, due to frequency and coverage. I won’t be able to afford a car when I get there, not until I get a job at any rate.

I’m going to buy a bike. I love riding bikes and have been riding for as long as I can remember. The main thing I use at the gym is the spin bike.

Buying a new bike puts me in a bigger dilemma than many people would find themselves when in my situation, and here’s why…

Over the years I have ridden all variety of bikes. In my early teens I was really into mountain biking, I had a custom black Saracen X-Ile. At times it was set up for dirt jumping, not unlike this…

A Saracen X-Ile set up for Dirt Jumping

At times it was set up for Trials riding.

A Saracen X-Ile set up for Trials

I rode a 24″ wheeled Felt Clutch BMX/cruiser for a time…

Felt 24″ Cruiser/BMX

On top of this I also had a huge Harley Davidson style 3G Funtime

3G Funtime Chopper

…and a tiny Onza Mini-Bike.

Onza Mini-Bike (poor quality old photo)

Quite the variety, I’m sure you’ll agree. The time has now come for me to get a new bike though. But what should I go for?

This bike will not be used for any sort of off-road riding, and certainly not trials or jumping, since I have a loose fragment of bone in my right knee which is due for removal in an arthroscapy. I will be using the bike for fitness (time to finally lose the beer belly?) and for transport so it needs to be something reliable and efficient. I’m thinking about getting a singlespeed…

A singlespeed?

That’s right. A singlespeed. I’ve thought they look pretty cool since long before they became popular with the city-folk hipsters and the like. These things are cheap, they (typically) run on skinny tyres (great for efficiency) and are super-reliable (the part on most bikes I’ve had that has caused the most problems, is the gearing system, whether derailleur or internal hub gears). Another little bonus isthe many many colours they are available in, with some companies (such as Australia’s Mojo Bikes) which allow you to totally personalise them colour-wise. Further that that, I might try to find one second hand and in need of restoration. I think that would make a sweet project! I’d even be happy with making a “frankenbike” out of mismatched parts.

What do you think?