Back to the Light Side…

…or perhaps back to the dark side?
Last week I made a bit of an impulse buy on a cheap mountain bike on sale. I have been riding fixed gear solely for about three years now, and single speed for about another three…so I’m a bit uncertain about my purchase…Gears!

What it came down to is my desire to do some more cycling to work once the weather clears up, and also to open up the opportunity to cycle a little more off road (I do a bit on the fixie, but its not ideal). Our new home is in a fairly hilly area, my fixed gear cycle is not really geared for big hills- and if I gear it to get up the hills, I’ll be peddling too fast on the flat…

I don’t think I’m quite ready to sell the fixie yet,  but I guess time will tell. The beautiful elegance of a single speed is the simplicity of them – things almost never go wrong, and when they do its only one or two possible things. In saying this, there is nothing overly complicated about the 18 speed either. Whatever way you look at it, bikes are great simple machines where we can use our own engine to get from A to B.

Can I adapt back to riding gears? will I keep my fixie as a second?…time will tell 🙂