I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike...

As the Queen song, "Bicycle Race," says, I want to ride my bicycle. The weather is perfect for some biking and it's time to wipe the dust off your bike, oil up the chain, and get on a trail. This week I began biking season by going to the local shop for a bike tune-up. I was surprised to find out that the wait was a week long and they were not taking reservations. Plus, it cost $40. Fortunately, I ran into a friend that was willing to help me out with the tune-up. for those of you who don't have a bike-loving friend or relative, there are still a few options.

The first option is to do the work yourself using a Do-It-Yourself site. The BikeWebsite is a great web page with instructions on how to tune or repair just about anything. You'll have to buy parts but they will walk you through the process and the instructions are pretty straight-forward.

The second option is to buy a new bike. This option should be excercised if you can't even get the pedals rotating or can't go more than a block without the chain falling off. Buying a new bike can be a dizzying prospect. The first question you need to ask yourself is what type of bike you want. Mountain bikes tend to be the best commuter bike since they are much less expensive than a road bike. If you're serious about riding 30-40 miles a day, a road bike is the only way to go. As far as price, if you have the money someone makes a bike to match your budget. You can buy an inexpensive Mens Roadmaster from Walmart for $68. It's not the kind of mountain bike you'd want to ride off a cliff, but it'll get you from point A to point B (most of the time). On the other extreme, you could buy the Gary Fisher HiFi Carbon Pro (see pic below) which features an ultralite carbon frame, HiFi suspension, and every other gadget or upgrade known to man. All yours for only $5,719.99 (or 143 payments of 39.99). And road bikes can cost as much as $15,000!! So the take-home message is this: set your budget and then find the best bike that meets your budget.


Once you buy the Gary Fisher HiFi Carbon Pro you'll certainly need some place to ride it (not just to and from school). If you live in Utah, a great place to find biking paths is Utah.com. Here you can look at popular destinations or you can search a particular city and see a description and rating of trails in the area. Utah Mountain Bike Trails also has a large list of trails. If you don't live in Utah you can do a google search for trails in your state.

Hopefully this has been helpful and if not helpful, at least interesting. Whether you're looking for an enjoyable way to commute or an exciting outdoor activity, you can't go wrong with a bicycle.