New Trek Day

While I was out running around with Henry on Saturday, I saw our local Trek Store had their used kids' bikes at 50% off. They had a 16" Trek Mystic in pink that I thought would be perfect for Kate... but I didn't buy it, figuring it would make for good father/daughter time if I brought her with me the next day to get it.

Of course, the next day, it was gone.

Helpfully, the Trek guy called around to their other stores, and the Westerville location had the same bike for sale. We trekked up there (ha!), and $55 later, Kate had a great new bike:

Part of the reason I hesitated on Saturday was that I already had a 16" bike for Kate hidden in the crawl space. It was just a cheap Hello Kitty bike that I picked up for $20 over a year ago (I'm always on the lookout for a deal, even with the kids' bikes). When I looked at it again on Saturday night, it couldn't hold a candle to the Trek's quality, Hello Kitty graphics or no, so I was happy the Trek store came through for us.

Of course, with both Kate and Henry getting new bikes recently, Sam had to get in on the action as well:

It's actually Henry's old 16" Hot Rock that's been sitting the crawl space next to the Hello Kitty bike. Such is the curse of the middle child, to forever get hand-me-downs... but Sam likes it, and he's pedaling on it much better than he ever did on his old 12" Trek. I'm hoping he can get off the training wheels this spring.

I also ended up with a new/used Trek this weekend, finding a nice condition 1983 620 on our local Craigslist. I'd just been thinking I wanted a drop bar bike again, maybe something with lower trail, and flexier tubing, but also a quill stem. Kind of hard to find in 2014, but pretty common 30 years ago. My size, reasonably priced, and close by? Let me just hand you my wallet:

This picture is taken as I received it. Of course the horrible lycra covered gel saddle will go, along with the toe clip pedals, and sooner rather than later I'll want to put on my wider-than-39cm bars on there. Longer term, I'll replace the 27" wheels either with an existing 700c pair, or I may try a 650b conversion. I'm mildly anti-650b for mountain bikes, where that size hardly make a difference over 26" wheels, but converting a road bike to 650b makes good things happen: fatter tires combined with a lower bottom bracket makes for a smooth rider.

Interestingly, the guy I bought the Trek from had a fleet of about 30 older road bikes he was trying to downsize, targeting to end up with a relatively meager 12 or 15 bikes. It's always nice to find someone to make me look sane.