Goodby Old Friend!

Well a 7 year relationship has ended and I will soon be starting a new relationship. I am talking about my bike!

I have spent a lot of time with my bike, a gold painted “Diamondback Wildwood”. Not the best bike in the world, but a good bike for me. I got it in December of 1999, and have ridden it faithfully ever since, with some long absences and some major repairs! I put over 6,000 miles on it, so at 10 miles an hour, that is 600 hours with it! Considering my actual speed, it is probably more than 600 hours.

It gave me good service, but yesterday (Saturday, April 22), I took it out to ride and realized it was hopeless. There was just too much wrong with it to make it financially feasible to fix. I will donate it to a local group that fixes bikes to give free to children who need a bike and hope it provides a good bike for a child to learn the wonders and enjoyment of riding.

I have my eyes on a Trek Multitrac 7300, and am looking at others. I need to get another bike pretty soon-I’m missing out on super bike-riding weather! The Trek 7300 is cheap enough I can upgrade to a better bike if needed, but it will be good for my type of riding.

I have enjoyed my old bike, but I realized I was trying to keep it too long, especially when I almost ended up pushing the bike back 3 miles yesterday! Something went wrong with the gearing, and I did ride it back, but my maximum speed was about 6 milers per hour and it wasn’t any fun. This happened several years ago, and it cost me about 50% of the cost of a new bike to fix the old bike, so it's just not worth it. Hopefully a volunteer can fix it up so a child can enjoy it.

Of course, I’m looking forward to my new bike, while saying goodby to my old bike.
I’ll keep you advised!