The Latest...

Jessica's birthday is coming up, and though it will be no surprise to her, she's getting a new bike. I bought her a decent bike for her birthday-before-last, and while that was an excellent starter bike, I think it's time for something better.

When Jess first started riding, we really had no way of knowing if it was going to be something she would like, and something she would want to keep doing. Her first season was very limited, as she still lived in Toronto, and her new bike was here in the states. She did do some riding in Toronto though, on an old, heavy steel hybrid bike that was on loan from my mom.

Her true first season was last year, when she moved to the US to live with me. That year, she rode over 1800 miles (close to 3000 km) including as couple of metric centuries (62 mi / 100km) and the MS-150 up in PA (150 miles over 2 days, with the first day being 78 miles). To me this was proof that she was going to stick with it, and she genuinely seemes to enjoy riding. While her current bike is perfectly fine, it's not the most comfortable ride, due to the aluminum construction.

We're not 100% decided on what Jessica's new bike is going to be, but it will likely have some carbon fiber in the construction. This helps to dampen vibration and provides a much more comfy ride. This weekend at the bike shop is a "demo day" for a high-end bike maker called Serotta, so we'll both be there to test-ride some bikes.

Hopefully she won't get sold on the $3600 one!