my bikes

i'd like to pretend that i'm showing you these as somekind of background/intro type thing... but i'm not really. i'm just very proud of my bikes...

first up is my surly cross-check, i bought it as a replacement for a ridgeback that i'd been riding for a year or so. the same ridgeback that had been giving me serious jip with my shoulder, turns out through bad advice and ignorance (that bits my fault) i'd bought a bike that was just about large enough for a child, but sadly not a 5'10" 13 stone adult...

so, lesson 1 learnt, choose your bike shop carefully.

after some serious research, well... i found a link from the surly site... i checked out brixton cycles and what a top bunch they are. after popping in to pick out something similar to my ridgeback and spend around the £500 mark, i found myself ordering a surly, using some of the parts from my old bike... it... ummm... only cost me £700... oops.

anyway, i can't sing it's praises enough. it's been through a few changes since november, drop bars being fitted and a flip-flop rear wheel (thanks brixton!) but it's going from strength to strength. in fact the new singlespeed thing has been a bit of a revelation, it's like being a kid again and with no gears to worry about (which has also been lovely maintenence-wise on london's salt encrusted roads) you just concentrate on the ride...

so, surly=fun and singlespeed=more fun. great.

which leads me into bike number 2... i had been back to BC (brixton cycles) to look at singlespeeds, a specialized langster (which looked wicked with the moustache bars BC had put on it) and a fuji track bike, both coming in around £400... then i decided to it made more sense to use the cross-check and once again swop parts to something else...

i did look at a surly karate monkey for a bit of fun... then an on-one... but in the end, i went for a compact alu frame with carbon forks. yes, i know that's a bit of a jump... i just loved when i saw it in edwards (camberwell, super nice shop). i'm still not sure i made the right choice, don't get me wrong, it's been great fun and it's nice and easy to navigate around london with, but after popping out for an hour or two on the surly today i may have changed my mind (again)... i think i just have to realise that they are such totally different rides (after all, i used that line to try and convince my girlfriend that i wasn't being frivilous with a 2nd bike...) and it's great to have the option... btw, please excuse my pikey garden in the pics, i'll sort it in the summer... i will...

so, whatever your ride of choice, single or geared, i'm probably looking at it and thinking it would be a nice addition to my set...