I am excited to get my new bike and finally not have my knees bang on the handlebars!

He said

Well, I know I’ve spent a lot of time talking about bikes in the last few posts, but the reality is in a COVID world that has seen us locked down in varying states for more than a year, for me it has been the one shining, glorious reprieve from it all. I’ve lost 45 pounds because of the bike, and I feel probably the healthiest I have in years. The 45 minutes and 17km I spend every single day has been such a help for my mental wellbeing through this last challenging year. I mean I have always been somewhat of a bike/cycling appreciator but I feel like I’ve really found something that is so much fun while in the background does so much good for my health—it feels like I am cheating it is that much fun.

Danielle and I both had our bikes unceremoniously stolen off the front of our trailer 3 years ago, the night before a camping trip. My bike was bought in university and I loved that GT for more than 20 years… it was so great. We replaced it last summer with the Swift bike. Since July last year I have put over 2600 kms on that new bike and have road through parts of the drivetrain. As it was becoming clear that I needed to upgrade the knockoff drivetrain parts on the bike, I very quickly found out 2 truths: 1) A good quality drivetrain was going to cost almost as much as a new bike; and 2) it wasn’t necessarily certain that my Swift bike could accommodate an upgraded drivetrain.

This quickly sidetracked me to looking into new bikes. I ended up finding a newer company out of Vancouver (Vanterra Customs) making a Gravel Bike that would fit the bill in terms of what I needed out of a bike. And while it was the last thing I wanted to do, having just got the other bike under a year ago, it seemed I was upgrading. I ordered it Friday, and I should have the bike in a week or so’s time—just ahead of trailer season and ahead of my first ride on the G2G Rail Trail! I am so excited to get it! But, what it also meant is that Emelia who also needed a new bike as she’s outgrown her current one, would be able take over my Swift bike and get a much better bike than we would have gotten her so it’s a win-win all the way around!

But, Danielle, who is far more frugal than I, when our bikes were stolen, she had managed to find a replacement on our local Buy Nothing group for free. That bike ended up being heavier than a Sherman Tank, and was very uncomfortable for her to ride. It has permanently become the bike attached to the bike trainer in the basement that we all use. I have been on her for a while to try and find a bike so we could do more riding together. Well, with my replacement out of the way, and Emelia’s solved too – in true Danielle fashion – she was now finally ready to find a bike for herself (because everyone else is squared away). This weekend after a long and fruitless search on FaceBook Marketplace that we finally gave up on, we finally found her a really nice used bike at Squeaky Wheels. And she is delighted!

Today she and I went went for a test run and she is super happy with her bike. What I love most about it, is once my new bike arrives, it means we’re all going to be able to do some family rides together. I am really hoping it clicks for Emelia as it might be something else like Gymnastics and Cheer that she can find identity with. But at the absolute worst it will connect this family with something that does a lot of good for all of us!

She said

As John stated this week was trying to finalize some fitness solutions for our entire family. As a family we have always been active, always focused on physical activity and thankfully we all love it and love doing activity together.

For over a year we have been trying to solve the problem of bikes for all of us. We were able to get John a bike last year but his level of riding and the kms he has put on it made it pretty clear that we would have to eventually upgrade much to my financial horror. After a crazy amount of research John was able to find a bike that was still expensive but a lot more reasonable for our family budget and with his tax return this year we were able to pay for it easily. Finding bikes in the era of covid has been a crap storm. We looked for weeks for bikes, every place was sold out and/or insanely expensive. I don’t mind investing in a more expensive bike for John because of his use level but trying to justify the cost for either Emelia or I was just not possible.

For the last few weeks both John and I had been searching for bikes for Emelia and I with little to no luck, crap bikes were expensive, expensive bikes were outrageous and things that were good quality at fair pricing was sold in a nano-second.

John, through a friend got us connected with a local bike co-op that booked us in for an appointment this weekend. I didn’t go in with a lot of expectations I would find anything but we really lucked out and I was able to find a bike that suited my needs perfectly. It wasn’t a gravel bike like we had planned but those are very expensive. I found a light aluminum mountain bike that is really light and really comfortable. And it was within budget!

So after weeks of searching we finally all have bikes, Emelia will take John’s almost new bike, I have my new to me one and John gets his new one hopefully this week. We cannot wait to get out together as a family as well to get out with our camping ‘family’ the Sherwoods at the trailer.

It was a good weekend considering this was the weekend we were supposed to be opening camp at the trailer park. We had a good distraction with a good bike ride today, and a great hike with Emelia yesterday. We are hoping that in the next few weeks restrictions might shift and we can get back to the trailer with our friends and back on the trails!