Well i alluded to this in my last post but the last 6 weeks or so I have been learning to ride a bike. But the whole aim was to learn to fully ride a bike. Part of that process means if I am going to learn I am going to need something to learn on, I can’t keep relying on someone else to provide me with a bike to practice on or do my lessons. So with this in mind I did a bit of research, took lots of advice from professionals and from friends and I pulled the plug.

I bought a bike!!! Yep thats right a 2 wheeled, human powered mode of transportation. Now this may not sound as like exciting news but considering this is my first EVER bike and im almost 30 years old, its a big deal to me. Unlike most people I never had a bike as a child. I was never taught to ride as a child and never given a bike by my parents, so I never learnt to appreciate what its like to have that ability to get places quickly and easily unless i was walking.

But I am really excited at the process of learning to ride. The more I learn the more confident I get and the better I feel. I dunno if I am gonna be hitting mountain trails or anything yet, but at the moment my little goal is 2 things:
1. Do a River Ride around the city (i think its like 40km or so)
2. Ride a Bike overseas while on my holiday
It sounds kinda silly but the most daunting part of this is making sure I am confident enough to not want to die when I get on the bike. At the moment I have a habit of focusing on things while I am riding, like this morning, was trying to thread a bit of a path between a rubbish bin and a pole. So i was doing as instructed, focus on where I want to go, don’t focus on what I want to avoid. So i was looking at the gap, looked at the bin, looked at the gap, looked at the bin, o that bins getting awfully close, clang! Handle bars hit the bin lid. WOOPS!

But enough about me learning to ride, what about the bike. Well I followed some advice from my trainer and other people and looked into a mountain bike. But not a full on moutain bike. Matt & the boys at Avanti Plus Fortitude Valley really looked after me. They really knew what to recommend to me for someone who is looking for a decent first bike. They gave me two options.
Avanti Agressor 1
Avanti Agressor 2
Both are Hardtail Mountain bikes. So that just means they only have Front Shocks rather than both Front and Rear. So good for both general riding but then if I do decide to go off road (which eventually i do want to learn and try it out cause it seems like fun).

I looked at both bikes, not much different between the two, with the Agressor 2 having the better parts (both have the same frame). So thats what I went with. In the long run the bike will do me better. Rather than spending less now and then having to go for that bike in the future, it is more logical (damn my logical focused brain) to buy it now. So i bought the bike and now I just need to get some roof racks for the car, cause my car is a bit small and the bike takes up 2/3 of the car when in it. So once I have that I will be all kitted out for the moment (will eventually need to get some lights for it if i ride in the dark etc but for the moment, i don’t really need them as I wont be riding in the dark).

So if anyone wants to go for a nice easy ride sometime, let me know, im still learning remember!