I did something last weekend I haven’t done in almost 25 years – I bought a new bike.  I got my last one right after I got married (almost 25 years ago) and although I haven’t put a ton of wear and tear on it, it just felt like a new one would make some sense right now.

We were going for a family bike ride downtown to see fireworks with friends of ours originally from Europe.  They love to go on bike rides.  I was getting all three of our family bikes ready and I noticed that my son’s mountain bike was getting a bit small for him.  He’s 17 years old and I thought why not give him my old bike (which runs great) and get myself a new one?  It’s a double win!

My wife concurred, so the question to me was – what kind of bike should I get?  My last one was a hybrid bike (on road/off road) which worked well, but I was lured by the relatively plush ride of the city/comfort bikes with a cushy seat and shock absorbers.  I realized that there are no style points for buying the “old-man bike”, but if I’m leaving the workforce next year, why not bike my way comfortably into retirement? After all, I had my last bike for 25 years – this one might carry me to age 74.

I bought my last bike from my good friend from college, Jeff, who owns a bike & ski store.  We’ve bought all of our bikes (and skis) from him over the years.  His thoughtful son Michael works at the store on weekends and tried his best to show me the differences in the bikes – clearly recommending one that had a cool, rugged, advanced design for serious bikers (it looked like the BMW of bikes).  Luckily, he didn’t cringe too much when I picked the city cruiser and put a roomy big bag on the back.  While I did my best to convince myself it looks like a rugged, well-equipped police bike (it’s dark blue, after all), I do worry I look a bit like Clark Griswold on pedals.

Oh well .. at least I’m comfortable and that will encourage me to use it more.  I don’t write about fitness a lot on this blog, but I do need to make it more of a priority.   Hopefully, I will coast into retirement on this new bike.

Image Credit: Mr. FireStation