Barry Gets a New Bike!

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.

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.

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.

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!

Miles of smiles on this sweet ride!