Cycling Sisters

Finding a bike that fits you and your riding style is extremely important. A poor bike fit may leave your wonderful new bike rusting away and gathering cobwebs in the closet. A good bike fit may lead you to abandon your automobile and never look back. Here's my story...

When I first started riding I borrowed my Aunt's bike. My Aunt is about a foot shorter than me. When I got on the bike I felt like my knees were in my ears. It took a lot of work just to get the peddles to go round, and any ride longer than a block was painful. I hated riding, and the bike sat mostly unused. Fortunately I was rescued from not being a rider by my mother who had recently been bitten by the bike bug and had abandoned her car. She convinced me to go to the local bike shop and get a bike that actually fit me. That's when I found “Puff”. Puff is a BIG green hybrid bike, named after the magical dragon because it felt magical to ride. What had seemed like an awful task on my Aunt's miniature bike became an incredibly enjoyable experience and I found I was coming up with more and more excuses to ride Puff. Other modes of transportation just didn't seem nearly as nice as the combination of fresh air, exercise, interaction with my neighborhood, and general lifted spirits I got while riding my bike. Thank goodness bikes come in different sizes or I would still be stuck waiting for buses, or worse chained to an automobile!

All that to say, the key to happy cycling is getting a bike that fits! I'm going to keep an eye on the list serve and try to post fit-related topics here for others to find, so hopefully you too can find the perfect fit.