Traveling Twosome
  • Traveling Twosome Blog
  • BeBelize - Our life in Belize (2011-2013)
  • Earlier adventures (2003-2010)
    • First Belize Trip 2010
    • Fall Sail Cruise Aboard Logos 2009
    • Conch Key 2007
    • Charleston Sailing School 2007
    • Biscayne Bay Sailing School 2007
    • Key Lime Sailing Club 2006
    • Southwest Parks 2006
    • BEYC/Jost van Dyke, BVI 2005
    • Offshore Sailing School 2004
    • Annapolis Sailboat Show 2004
    • Finger Lakes 2004
    • NY State Bike Tour 2004
    • Biras Creek, BVI 2003
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"Pearl" in Winter Garden, Florida
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Long shadows in Wyoming

Barry Gets a New Bike!

2/8/2018

1 Comment

 
Recently Barry decided he was ready to divest himself of his Jamis Dakar full-suspension mountain bike.  He's had a love-hate (mostly hate) relationship with this bike since we bought it used on Ebay several years ago.  He's never felt really comfortable on it, and the disc brakes are so touchy that they seem to get out of alignment if you even look at them funny, causing him many hours of frustration.  So even though he has had some fun riding it (including in Colorado at the Dumont Lake national forest service campground in Sept. 2016 in the photo below), we haven't been riding off-road much lately, and he thought he'd get more use out of a different type of bike.
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Mountain Biking in Colorado
We always had so much fun riding around Ambergris Caye in Belize on our beach cruisers.  They are heavy and distinctly non-aerodynamic, but the smile factor is unarguable.
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Riding the sandy roads in Belize
So Barry did a little research online, and we rode over to a local bike shop here that takes trade-ins.  This shop carried Electra Townies, the best-selling bike model in the U.S., we discovered.  Barry liked the look of them and was able to take a quick test ride around the parking lot.  Riding this bike was immediately comfortable and fun, and he was sold.

He actually had to go back a second time as it took a few days to get a trade-in price on his Jamis since it had been upgraded and customized by the original owner.  So, he wouldn't be riding his new bike back on our return trip, a disappointment. 

Once the bike shop got back to Barry with a price, he headed back over on his Jamis and returned to our RV park on his new Electra Townie 7d (7-speed).  He loves it!  It's perfect for tooling around the RV park and heading to and from the pool.
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I have to admit, I have a bit of bike envy.  I had cruiser bikes in Belize and Mexico and had a lot of fun riding them.  But I'm not willing to give up any of the bikes in my stable (road, folder, or MTB) just yet, as I still enjoy all of them in different situations.  And there's just not room to carry a fourth bike for me in Pearl. 

​I have my eyes open on Craigslist and in the local thrift store in case a super cheap cruiser bike turns up.  If the price were right (I'm talking like $25), I could pick one up until we leave here and donate it back to the thrift store when we leave. 

If not, it's no big deal; I can walk to the office and the pool just fine -- I just won't have as much fun as Barry!
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Miles of smiles on this sweet ride!
1 Comment
Allison link
2/8/2018 11:25:29 am

We have always wanted park bikes, but there is nowhere to put them when we're traveling. Barry's bike looks like fun.

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    ©2018 by Barry & Emily Smith .All rights reserved.
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    Emily & Barry

    We're a long-married, early-retired couple who are currently traveling as nomads with no fixed home base.  After years of living in North Carolina (Emily's home state), we spent 18 months living oceanfront on Ambergris Caye, Belize, a year road-tripping the US in a Honda CR-V, a year in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and are now roaming North America in our 32' motorhome, Pearl, following warm weather whenever possible.

    Our passions are bicycling, walking and hiking, birding, continuing our midlife struggles to learn Spanish, enjoying healthy food (and the occasional donuts & pie!), traveling (duh!)  We travel with a fleet of bicycles and Paisley, our 10-year old Boston Terrier. 

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    Paisley, May 2016
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    States visited (pre-RV)
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    Pearl, a 2007 Newmar Bay Star
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    States visited in "Pearl"

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  • Traveling Twosome Blog
  • BeBelize - Our life in Belize (2011-2013)
  • Earlier adventures (2003-2010)
    • First Belize Trip 2010
    • Fall Sail Cruise Aboard Logos 2009
    • Conch Key 2007
    • Charleston Sailing School 2007
    • Biscayne Bay Sailing School 2007
    • Key Lime Sailing Club 2006
    • Southwest Parks 2006
    • BEYC/Jost van Dyke, BVI 2005
    • Offshore Sailing School 2004
    • Annapolis Sailboat Show 2004
    • Finger Lakes 2004
    • NY State Bike Tour 2004
    • Biras Creek, BVI 2003