The Bike Blog

So I run. I run lots. Running makes me happy. I also test products for running. That gets me free stuff. Stuff that I can sell so I can get stuff. I don’t like buying stuff or having lots of stuff unless I use it. So I changed stuff that I wouldn’t use too much to stuff that I plan to use a lot. Do you follow?

After a lot of product testing, I ended up getting a Garmin Oregon 550t. It is a handheld GPS with topo maps, camera, etc… It’s pretty cool. But honestly, I wouldn’t use it much as I don’t geocache and seldom go places where I don’t have a map. It is a cool gizmo, so I thought I would sell it off to buy something more useful. Something I could use daily. Something that is so much more fun.

This is a Marin Hamilton 29er. I sold the GPS and bought this bike. Much more useful. I plan on commuting to work this summer and this is just so much easier to pedal than the heavy mountain bike. Commuters (at least this one) have the bigger tires (29” vs. 26”) and weigh significantly less. This bike is also a fixed speed bike, so no skipping derailleurs while chugging uphill. The rear hub can also be swapped around for a non-freewheeling bike. This means that the pedals will always turn with the back wheel. Kind of interesting and I will definitely try that out.

The Marin now hangs with my Rocky Mountain and my wife's Norco. Look at how much bigger the tires are! I am so looking forward to commuting this summer. It’s also going to be an interesting mix will the marathon training I am doing for the Powderface race in July.

So that’s a more useful investment than a GPS. As much as I like gizmos and GPS’, a bike is just so much cooler! My Rocky Mountain has 1000’s of kilometers on it so once that bike wears out I may use another earned GPS to pay for a new mountain bike. Hehehe, now to wear out bikes. Good fun!