bikes & little girlz in the hood: i'm all about the banana seat!
so on tuesday i went to a bike shop and left feeling discouraged. the sales guy was knowledgeable, nice, and was super helpful upon finding out that i�m new to biking. but gosh, bikes are so damn expensive, it�s gonna dent my wallet in a big way. is there such a thing as a bike loan? heh. i�ve thought about buying a cheaper one--possibly a 2nd-hand one in may, when all the college students sell tons of stuff before leaving town after graduation. but then i think i should go ahead and consider it an investment, b/c if i just plunk down the money and buy a quality one now, it will last and provide many years of enjoyment and recreation/exercise.
affordability is only one issue, though. the other seems to be my small size/height. at 5�2, most bikes are too big for me. the sales guy even admitted as much, stating that only a handful of frames in their store would be appropriate for me. boy did i feel tiny and miniature when i left that store. perhaps another option is to look at kids� bikes?
if only buying a bike were as simple as it seemed when i was little. oh MAN, i remember how excited i was one year when my parents bought me a spankin� brand-new huffy bike. oh, how i loved that thing. i think what made it so fantastic was that it was a girl-bike, complete with a banana seat, tassels, a basket and little horn. i rode my little heart out on that thing, pedaling fast around the neighborhood, selling lemonaide and girl scout cookies, showing off and chanting �anything you can do I can do better!� and sticking out my tongue. and of course, best of all: using my huffy bike to keep up with the neighborhood boys on their BMX bikes at a nearby cul-de-sac. (yeah!). i graduated to a ten-speed bike a few years later.
i guess the time has come for a grown-up bike. but damn, suddenly i long for the days of the banana seat!
