A Sad Loss…

I’ve been agonising for a while about my lovely old Haro.  She’s been complaining and displaying all the signs of her old age.  A couple of months ago I took her wheels in to be trued and they couldn’t do it.  At that point I began to accept that her days were drawing to a close.

So, it is with a heavy heart and a much lighter wallet that I have to tell you I’ve ordered a new companion.  This weekend’s ride will be my last on my trusty Haro.

RIP My Faithful Haro Friend, Out To Pasture After 10 Years

The frame’s still bombproof, but the wheels, brakes and bottom bracket are knackered.  I’ll pass it on to some deserving soul or put it on Freecycle, unless anyone has any better ideas…?

…A Happy Beginning?

I’m a bit scared.

I’m a bit scared of how easy it was to spend my money with Wiggle.   I simply used the affiliate link from Fight Bad Driving and was logged into my Wiggle account automatically.  The bike I’ve chosen was already on my wish list so, what seemed like 4 nanoseconds later, I was looking at the “Thank You From Wiggle” screen and experiencing early-onset-post-purchase-dissonance.

Here’s the beast:

Focus Fat Boy 2010, My New Steed

Why A Mountain Bike?

I thought long and hard about getting a road bike, but I need a family-friendly ride.  We live alongside a canal so we ride as a family along the towpath, regularly.  Everyone else has an offroad-style bike: even the young girls have fat tyres.

The roadie option was to buy a decent road bike, then get my Haro updated with some inexpensive new wheels and a new bottom bracket for the family rides.  This would’ve cost the wrong side of £100 on top of a new roadie for sure.  Shed room would also have been an issue.

So, the MTB won the day this time.

Why The Focus?

I’ve read reviews on Focus’ road bikes and MTBs, from last year and this year.  Focus bikes are German, and those Germans are pretty good at engineering, whatever you say about their sense of humour.  Wiggle are selling a lot of their bikes (which must be a good sign, surely) and the more recent reviews have been very good.  On the 2009 models, it seemed that they were trying to cut costs by providing lower-priced components.  OK, this year’s Fat Boy is £100 more than last year’s, but the components are good.

Oh, and I loved the paint job.  How cool is it? Really? I mean, How Cool is THAT?  I’m a sucker for a nice white frame, me. 🙂

Let me know what you think … and if you know any good cause that’d benefit from a Haro Escape 7.0 which squeaks a bit, let me know.