I Got A New Bike!!!

            I have been waiting for today for a while now, most intently in the past few days, and it ended on a very happy note for me.  This afternoon is when we got to pick out our new bikes that we would have for the next two years.  I say that I have been waiting more intently for the past few days because just a few days ago we saw the bike boxes laying out open on the ground and were informed that we would be able to test ride the bikes this previous weekend.  Unlike with many other things, of which we have grown accustom, we had to wait for a later time than what we were told.  After lunch today though we were able to go out and see all of the brand new bikes and pick the one that we
wanted.  I have to say that I kind of felt like a kid in a candy shop, looking over all of the bikes trying to find the right one.  There were three different kinds of bikes, each having one to two paint jobs.  All of the bikes though were regular sized (26” wheel) entry level Trek mountain bikes.  In the end I settled for the one that I had my eye on from the time I saw the bikes.  It is a green Trek 4300 and is awesome!!!  After deciding on my own bike I turned into a facilitator for everyone else.  With knowledge of me knowing about bikes, almost everyone to ask me for advice on which bike they should get and how it should fit them.  I was more than glad to help them find the right bike for themselves; although it began to get really repetitive giving the same advice to every single person who asked.  But in the end everyone got really good bikes. 

I, along with a few other people, was unfortunately unable to test ride our bikes because we did not have the right adapter to air up the tires on some of the bikes till that evening.  The following day before lunch we had just over an hour to waist, so a few of us decided to go for a ride to the dam.  This group of six soon turned into three as soon as we got off the road and began trail riding; the other three turning around and returning to the PCTC.  I have to say the bikes performed great on the trail for the most part.  Well mine did any ways.  We trusted that the bikes were put together well and did not inspect them much, but we found out on the trail that not everything was tightened down and one of the bikes front fork came lose so they had very little control of their steering.  This, along with other problems with other people’s bikes, lead to many people turning to me to fix there bikes for them.  This also, in turn, led the training director and the man in charge of the bikes to ask me to help teach the bike maintenance session on Saturday.