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.

Time for a Change

It's time for a change. I've struggled with this blog for long enough. Too many times I've sat down and found myself with either nothing to say or so much that there's no way to narrow it down into a single, coherent post. Why? No focus. It was supposed to be a blog about 'my thoughts' which sounds great but in reality is far to broad a subject. I mean, have you ever SEEN inside my head? It's a crazy, disorganised mess in there and narrowing down one sensible, insightful thought is like trying to select a particular strand from a plate of spaghetti. Even if I could do it I'd end up getting distracted by a tasty looking meatball.

So I needed focus and it just so happens I found it. You see, the idea of life as a journey has always resounded heavily with me. I'd like to explore that more. and I just bought a bicycle. So I think I'd like to talk about that too. So i figured why not use this blog as a place to explore this journey of life and faith. A journey I happen to have decided to make on a brand new bicycle.

Jesus traveled a lot and he was a humble guy. If they'd been invented then I believe he may well have done a lot of his traveling on a bicycle. Paul, I have no doubt would have loved a good bicycle for his missionary journeys. I bet Paul and Barnabus wouldn't have fallen out so badly if they had bicycles. I mean EVERYONE gets grouchy when their feet are tired and achy.

If Jesus were walking the earth and ministering in person today I believe he'd have a bicycle.

So if I'm going to follow the modern Jesus, today's Jesus, the living Jesus who's at work in the world as we speak, I'd better be able to keep up.
I'm going to follow Jesus on a Bicycle.

Life. Faith. Bicycling.

that's my blog.

More later. Next post I'll tell you a little about the bike I bought. keep you updated on that. I'm also hoping to get back in better shape so I'll let you know how that goes too. And as and when i find some nuggets of wisdom picked up along the jopurney I'll share them with you too