Last year, when Punky learned to ride her 2 wheeler, we hauled out my old bike and I took it for a spin. I had not used this bike in a long time. It was a mountain bike, and while there is nothing wrong with that, this one just didn’t seem to fit me right. I went for a short ride and my arms, shoulders, wrists and butt ached to the point that I was dreading the short ride back home. Clearly, if I was going to be able to ride with my family, Mama needed a new bike. We looked last year, with hopes of catching a good sale as it was the end of the summer. I really love the bikes from Electra and Nirve - they are seriously funky looking, nicely built, decent components and super to ride. They also come with a rather super price tag, and so have been placed solidly on my “When I win the Lottery” list. This season we started the search for a used bike. A friend suggested a place in nearby Guleph She described it as a big warehouse type of place full of every kind of bike and bike thing that you could imagine. That is exactly what Backpeddling is like. If it is bike related and they don’t have it, you probably don’t need it. They have every kind of bike, every kind of vintage, every size, every price, and every accessory. And on top of all that the service is superb. The guy helping me just finished selling a very fancy bling-bling kind of low rider (complete with purple crushed velvet banana seat. Spectacular.) when I asked to try out a slightly beat up Schwinn cruiser. Not only was he happy to drag it out and adjust the seat for me, he didn’t bat an eye when I said I needed a basket. He even helped Punky pick out a new pink squeaky horn for her bike. This is really one of those places you love to send other people because it really could not get any better. It was just as much fun as going into a really good yarn store. Really.
Ok, so enough gushing, you want to see what I got right?
It’s a used (more fun to say “vintage”) Schwinn, single speed with coaster brake. Not really sure how old – I am assuming it is vintage styling rather than true vintage.
But it’s just what I wanted, and really fun to ride. Joey has offered to paint it for me, since the current paint job is a bit beat up. and he’s good at that kind of thing. I’m going to see what colours are available before I make any decisions. And the basket is big enough to hold “at least a hundred balls of yarn” – according to Punky. Who am I to argue with that kind of logic?
