Yesterday I finally bought my bike, it’s Nishiki XC Team 08. It’s blue, it’s beautiful and hopefully it’s everything I need. I paid a fair amount for it, but I’ve used my usual fund raising skills (living dirt cheap, weighing every penny I spend) so I figured I was worth something extra. Anyway today was time to take it out for a spin for the first time, and this was also the first time with SPD pedals for me, very exciting. For you non-bikers, SPD pedals are pedals that you lock you shoes into with a special clip so get better power transmission around the whole pedal-circle.

So how was it? It was fabulous, it was as fun as skiing is. And those of you who know me knows that I’m all-smile when I ski. Going through the forest on tiny trails as fast as you dare I never thought I could be that much fun. The bike is wonderful, not that I have much to compare it too, but still it’s everything I wanted. The SPD pedals then, they’re awesome. You get so much more control and power, but it’s a little bit frightening from time to time when you can’t get your foot out in time. But I guess it’ll get better with more experience.

I also discovered what a great exercise MTBing is, not many minutes very spent sitting still on the saddle and just keeping the balance at speed in the forest is quite exhausting for a noob. As soon as the shoes dries I’ll be out on new bike-driven adventures.

Now let me sprinkle a little bit of heaven for your ears,
CRS – Rebel Music
Immortal Technique – The 3rd World

For you who are familiar with them,  CRS are Kanye, Lupe and Pharell, it doesn’t get much better than that today.