Biking

For fun. For health. For earth.

I used to bike as a kid. I biked a for a couple of years during my college. But it was biking as a means of transportation during those times. After I came to the US to do my PhD, I started biking, again as a means of transportation till I bought a car. Only a few months ago, I discovered the 'fun' part of biking. And that is what all this rant is about.

My wife had an old bike which she was not using; but wanted to start using. This time around, we wanted to use the bike not just for transportation, but also as a recreational tool. Since the old bike was - um - old, we bought a new bike. I wanted to buy one too, but I also wanted to first make sure that I like biking (and I wanted to do some research into what kind of bike I want). So, I got the old bike fixed and decided to use it. One of our friends is a little into mountain biking and he suggested we go biking on a trail. When we were thinking of biking, we mostly had road biking on our minds - never thought of taking the bike into the forest and all. Anyway, on one fine weekend morning my friend, my wife and I went biking on a nearby trail in White Clay Creek State Park. We were so unprepared for the trail, that we did not even have helmets! And my old bike's handle bar was rotating 360 degrees whenever it wanted to!! Nevertheless, we had lots of fun. We did some shopping for helmets and hydration packs and our weekend agenda was pretty much set for the season - biking!

A month or so after we went on our first biking trip, my wife gifted me a new Cannondale F7 Disc mountain bike. It is an awesome set of wheels and I love it. I did some research into bike buying before I decided on the Cannondale. Several websites got me started with the types of bikes that are available. A mountain biking book borrowed from the local library helped me understand the parts of the bike - how they look; how they work and what I should look for. The best part about bikes is that all the parts are visible to the naked eye and if you spend a little time with the bike it is very easy to understand how they work. Most of all, I bugged my local bike shop people - they were very helpful in explaining me the differences in the bikes which are priced differently. If you are planning to buy a bike too then my suggestion is to go grab some biking book from your local library (preferably the one with a lot of pictures) and do some reading. One of the websites I came across that helped me a lot is Jim Langely's Website. Paying a visit to the bicycle manufacturers website is also a good idea. Performance Bike and Price Point are two online stores where I found good deals on several parts/accessories. Performance Bicycle has stores across USA. If your town happens to have one then you should check it out. You can always buy a bike online and get it shipped to the store. You would need a few accessories almost immediately after you buy a bike. A helmet is must if you intend to ride on trails. Almost all bike stores carry small bags/pouches that can be tied under the seat. I find them useful to put my keys, wallet and cellphone. If you do not have a hydration backpack, then a bottle cage and water bottle are important. If you are serious about biking, then you should consider buying a backpack with a hydration bag. It doubles up as a carrier for your other personal stuff and simple biking tools. Biking tools that one might want to carry include a patch kit and/or extra tube; a bike tool kit and a bike pump. These are the accessories that I use most and feel that fall into 'required' category. A quick look at any bike shop will reveal a host of other tools/accessories. Depending on your need, use and/or budget you can go for other accessories.

I can continue the rant; but the single most important point is to 'use the bike'. The more I bike, more I am learning about it. So, if you are even remotely interested in biking you should give it a try.