Week 39 - Day One: Decisions, Decisions

BIKE: Eastwood
TIME THERE: 22 min. (woot woot!)
TIME BACK: 24 min.
WEATHER: partly cloudy, 9C, 13 km/hr headwinds there; a few clouds, 16C, 15 km/hr tailwinds back.
WHAT I WORE: yoga pants, t-shirt, sweatshirt
NOTES:

I've been riding Eastwood for the past couple days because poor Mike the Bike is out of commission with a broken spoke. This has thrown me into a tailspin of bike research: now that I know how much I dislike the high maintenance required of winter biking, I would love to move up to an internal hub bike for my next purchase, and I have my eye set on this little puppy: Desire by Mountain Equipment Co-Op. It's a hybrid, built specifically for women's proportions, and it has an internal hub so it's super low maintenance - could a bike possibly be more suited to me??

There are two problems with this bike, though: (1) the Edmonton MEC doesn't carry bikes, so I'll have to drive out to Calgary to get it, and if I need any servicing/repairs on it that come free with the purchase of the bike, I'd have to return to Calgary every time (or just forego MEC and pay for it myself at another bike shop here); and, (2) with an internal hub around the rear axle, I can't attach my daughter's trailer to it, so I'd either have to use one of my other bikes to haul my daughter around (i.e., repair Mike's spokes and use him, or see if I can attach it to Eastwood) or purchase something else to transport my daughter with on the new bike.

Another problem is that it's a $750 bike. In the world of bikes that's not very expensive, but it's sure a lot more than the $250 I spent on Mike, and WAY more than the $50 I spent on Eastwood. As a single parent and a full-time student, is it really worth it to spend that much money on a bike? Especially since I still have over a year left on my car lease, so I'm simultaneously paying for a car?

Ack! Decisions, decisions! I don't think I'll be in Calgary for a while, so I don't have to make any immediate decisions. Still, it's something to think about. And every day I think about it and put off getting a new bike is another day I'm stuck driving my daughter to daycare because I haven't hooked the trailer up to Eastwood. Ahh, well, there are worse things than doing a little driving every day . . . I guess . . . (hmmph).