The cycling continues with slight mishaps

Recently a friend of mine allowed me to borrow an extra bike of his in order to try out the city's extensive bike paths. This was a great loaner because I don't want to buy something that I am going to just end up having sit in the back of my apartment nor do I wish to purchase something that isn't up to the task or something that is too expensive. Having a mid-range bike at my disposal for some time is exactly what I need.

Where I live is relatively flat so having a top end bike isn't really what I need but I also don't want something that is too cheap and ends up broken all the time. I have had bicycles in the past and many times I ended up with something that had a really cheap derailleur and it would just never really get into the gear that I wanted it to be in fully. This bike only has a single main cog (the big one) and 3 gears on the back. This makes it a lot easier to maintain because the micro-adjustments that one needs to make to keep the gears in line are not so close together that adjusting in one direction completely screws up gears on lower settings. Perhaps this doesn't make sense to a lot of people out there but if you cycle, perhaps you know what i mean.

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Since all the riding that I intend to do will likely just be around the city, this is a perfect bike for me. I also don't need big tires because the opportunities to go "off road" are going to be very limited since there are quite strict rules about where you can actually bring your bicycle in this busy city and there isn't much in the way of nature anyway. Combine this with the fact that there is very little in the way of any sort of hills here and there isn't much reason for me to have anything other than the "cruiser" that I already have.

Things haven't been all sunshine and roses though and a couple of things have irritated me a little bit about my bike. For one thing, the tires on this thing are extremely thin the likes of which you would expect a road bike to have

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This has created a few near spills for me because it is still quite cold at night here in Illinois and if I ride in the mornings there can be "black ice" in certain places on the trail. For those that don't know, "black ice" is very thin ice that you cannot see because of the tarmac that it is on top of. When you hit it, your heart jumps out of your chest a little bit as you get really close to busting your ass. I have no bailed on the bike just yet, but I have seen other people do it and it doesn't look like a great experience. Wider tires would probably prevent this a bit more, for obvious reasons.

Because of the frame on this bike I do not have the option of changing to other tires and even though in most of the year I wouldn't need them, I wish I did have that as an option. Therefore, when I do buy my own bike I think I will opt for a different frame, one that allows me to swap out - or likely have someone else swap them out for me - during the colder months of the year.

I know this is probably an irrational fear, but as a guy that lingers between 190 and 200 lbs, I sometimes feel like these skinny tires and feel like if I were to hit a bump or curb jump at all, that the tire would pop. Again, this probably isn't true because of the physics behind air pressure, but as a bigger guy, it is something I worry about. Even though my bike weighs around 15 lbs, I still don't relish the idea of needing to carry it all the way home. This is something I will have to keep in mind for when I do eventually decide to make the purchase of my own.

I know already that when I do buy a bike, there isn't any reason for me to go really top end with this purchase because I am not going to go anywhere on it outside of the city. The bike paths don't really extend that far outside of the city and even if they did, there isn't much reason to go out there. For me, this purchase is merely going to be a method of getting around without using taxis and also getting a bit of exercise. The jaunts that I take now are only 15 minutes to half an hour at the moment but who knows? Perhaps I will extend the distance a bit in the future.

I am really enjoying this change in my life and hope I stick with it. At the moment the worst part about doing this as transportation is the fact that I live in a 4 story walk-up building with no elevator as well as no garage. So when i do arrive home I have to carry the bicycle up 3 flights of stairs to get it into my apartment. I could just chain it up outside but bike theft is quite common in this city unfortunately, and there are stories from friends of mine that if the thieves can't steal the bike because of your lock, they will steal the tires, any accessories, and even the seat. Other people have said that their bikes was just destroyed and this just sucks about society. They don't even want the bike but they will destroy yours just for the hell of it. So I kind of have to carry it inside.

These are all things that I am capable of dealing with though because I am strong enough to carry a 15 lb bike up stairs. I do lift weights much heavier than this on purpose many times a week after all.