The story behind the bike I chose

OK, as promised, a little bit on the vehicle that inspired this new direction.
I spent a lot of hours researching bikes. mostly on the internet and then a trip to a local bike shop. I knew what I wanted; a road bike. you know what I mean, Light weight frame, 26" wheels, drop handlebars, gears that make you work and a ton of speed! No mountain bike for me. So I did my research, which also included working out the running costs of my car (about $0.25/mile) but it was really hard to get an idea of anything online. I have to guess beginner cyclists aren't expected to be very computer savvy because everything on the net seems to assume you really know what you're looking for. So i made a trip to the local bike stop to finalise my research. They were able to confirm what I feared; an entry level road bike (the Giant OCR3 was the model I looked at) goes for around $600. So I crunched my numbers and came to the conclusion that I could buy the bike and all the accessories i needed with no problem... as long as i didn't also expect to pay rent. Bottom line is when all was said and done the savings and advantages didn't come close to being worth the costs.
So I gave up on the idea. I figured I'd wait a while, maybe try and save my pennies and buy a bike next summer. I was a little disappointed, i loved riding my bike in my youth and was excited to get back on two wheels. And then I discovered something; The Kent GMC Denali Road Bike. from what I can figure it was made for K-Mart, a cheap and cheerful job, revieews were pretty good though. While no-one was saying 'it's a great bike', most said 'it's great value for money.' sure, it doesn't use the highest quality parts and it's a little heavy but for a basic road bike it's not bad and for the price it's amazing value. $160. Add tax and delivery and with the accesories my total came to a shade under $300. half what the Giant OCR3 would have cost. THAT I could afford. I waited a week, made sure I had the money and put in the order. two orders, one to k-mart for the bike itself and one to Amazon.com for the other stuff I'd need to get on the road.

The Bike arrived at the end of last week and I assembled it over the weekend. now I'm waiting for the rest. It was shipped today so hopefully it'll be here soon. Soon as it all Arrives I'll be on the road!

In the meantime I'll use my next post to give my first impressions of the bike itself. maybe I'll even post some pics.