"Hello, I'm here!"-Pee Wee Herman

In my life I have owned three bikes: my orange bike complete with banana seat from the 70's, the miniature blue Schwinn ten speed my dad bought me when I was eight, and the green mountain bike I got right after college. Though I put many many miles on the mountain bike, my arms and wrists usually felt sore because of the angles of the handlebars and how I leaned on them when I rode. It was a mountain bike that never saw a mountain, poor thing.

I knew I wanted something different this time around as far as the bike's design. There are many options these days, from Cruisers to Hybrids to Comfort Bikes. I knew I didn't like the frames on certain comfort bikes, the Flirt or the Townie for example, but I liked the idea of a comfort bike because of how upright you sit on them. They are designed like a mountain bike but intended for bike paths and roadways.

Meet my new bike, a Novara Metro which we got yesterday at REI with our dividend. After the guy sized me, I took the Metro out for about twenty minutes and was amazed how comfortable it was. It has a nice assortment of gears that are easy to change. Its shocks absorb bumps in ways that further preserve my comfort. It's lightweight to allow speed. The brakes were super responsive, which speaks to how much my old brakes had degraded.

I can promise you, the Metro and I, we're going to have some good times.