That first trip was definitely an experience. I had never rode a bicycle on the road alongside other moving vehicles. When I was a child I had a rather big patio, and even though I went through the streets a few times, there were not a lot of cars—I didn’t live in a busy place.

Going from there to riding in the middle of downtown traffic afte almost ten years was definitely a change of pace.

Not to worry though. I live in a pretty small city, which is alos quite used to motorcycles and bikes as part of traffic.

The one who wasn’t used to such things was me of course, so when I tried to get ahead of a car by going on the sidewalk and realized there was no ramp ahead to return to the street, I ended up braking rather carelessly, the momentum carried me forward and well, that hurt.

Alas, the traffic was slow so there was no real danger, I got back on track and pedaled away. The rest of the trip was painless! although my saddle was misaligned and I didn’t bother to correct it until I got home. I avoided big streets for the most part and everything was fine.

For a couple of days I resigned myself to cycling around the patio and the neighborhood, just like I did as a child, nothing much happened, although I was interested on maybe commuting to work by bike, but I wasn’t sure I would be able to do it.

On Friday I had the day off, and thought it would be a good time to go for an early morning ride! My original plan was to do the whole trip to work and then return, without the time pressure. But I ended up just roaming around downtown without any real direction, just embracing the freedom of commuting by bike. The initial route was the reverse to what I did to get home.

One of the things I focused on was looking for other people commuting on a bike. It wasn’t hard to find someone. As soon as I got to the main street I had to ride through, a commuter was a few dozen meters ahead. I decided to stay behind him for most of the main road, it was cool to follow someone with a path defined already. He turned towards a quieter street parallel to the main one, but I kept following the guy. He was older than me and we didn’t exchange any words, I stayed behind until I decided to go past him, his bike was rather old, and ugly.

That’s something I noticed, most bikes I saw were for commuting, they are barely maintained and often look rusty, with the paint peeling off and dust all over them. I didn’t stop to ask anyone about it, but my assumption is that they either don’t care about the looks, or they simply do it on purpose to discourage bike theft.

My bike was the only one I came across that had mechanical disc brakes. Everyone else had v-brakes, which are the most common especially on older bikes and budget-friendly models.

I made it downtown and started to see more of that traffic. Nothing to worry about, streets are still compact and cars go slow. I end up arriving to the riverside—yes my city has a river—and I realize that there’s actually a little bike lane there! They are one-way and on opposite directions of the street. This is a very touristy area so it makes sense, I have no idea why I had never noticed it before… oh, I know why.

The only bike lane in my city is like, a meter wide.

One might think that’s just sad but I honestly found it hilarious. Why did they even bother? Well, I can’t complain that much, because I tried it for a bit and kind of enjoyed it! Going at my own pace without worrying about cars behind or in front of me, I was able to pick up some speed, although I had to be mindful of intersections.

Having made such a discovery, I decided to head back home, going uphill on a lot of areas. I ended up riding for about 13 kilometers in an hour of time, not bad for a first try!

Next day on Saturday, I went cycling again and decided to ride towards a nearby neighborhood. This one felt a bit more dangerous at first, because I would have to ride through a main road. Not a highway per se, but still big. Once again I avoided most of it by using parallel streets and ended up making it there in one piece!

The reason I wanted to ride around this neighborhood is because my own only has dirt roads. This was nearby and had proper paviment, so I wanted to bike around the place without much pressure. I didn’t stumble upon any cars, and there was one super long straight downhill that was very fun to take, although I still was not great at using my brakes, it wasn’t super difficult to go back up either.

From there, I went towards a nearby high school, because I wanted to see if they had bike parking! The school was closed—it was a weekend after all–but I could see some infrastructure in place. The building itself was built recently, so the surroundings are pretty much just mountainous terrain…

So of course I had to give that a go.

I rode behind the high school and ended up going downhill between some dirt and rocks! I went rather slowly—It’s a hybrid, not a proper mountain bike—but it was cool to feel the suspension at work, as well as manouvering through the big rocks and trying to stay in balance. I tried to find an exit to go back to civilization, but it was a dead end and had to walk along my bike all the way up. It was worth it nonetheless.

On my way back I took the big street again all the way, and felt cool to do so without taking a side street this time. I went once again downtown, through the same route until I got to the riverside again.

I wanted to go in the opposite direction of the bike lane I took yesterday. I ended up in a small park. Just a social spot with lots of trees and walking paths, with a slightly wider path all around the park for bikes to ride around. I saw another person riding on one, and a few older men parked with theirs as well. The one cycling was the first bike with disc brakes I’ve seen on my rides so far. He also had a very wide saddle, I guess for comfort due to age.

Trying to ride into one of the smaller pathways, I ended up almost crashing with the root of a tree, so I had my second suddent stop that ended up with some… pain…

Alas, I cycled back downtown following a different road than before. There was a bit of a scary moment when one of the public transport buses was right behind me, but I managed to pedal away just fine. I had another encounter with another bike that I thought looked awesome, I followed it for a bit, the brand was Green Plus, and although I didn’t ask they seem to be at least double the price of mine! The shape looked a lot more unique than everything I had seen so far.

As I made it to the main road downtown, there was once again a bit of slow traffic. I was feeling bold and decided to ride in between the cars (it’s a single line, so it was between moving and parked cars, not between two moving vehicles). This is apparently legal in my city, from what I read online, but I was still careful about it to avoid opened doors in front of me.

Eventually I made it back to the usual quiet route home. I rode about 20 kilometers this time, for about 1 hour 40 minutes. I even stopped at little shop in the neighborhood (a tiendita de la esquina in Mexico) and bought myself some juice. I was feeling pretty cool.

During these trips I kept looking for bikes and what people used them for. Actually most of the people were older adults which didn’t seem to have a lot of income. I wondered where they were going, what their work was, what was the reason for them to bike, how long have they done it. How often do they do maintenance to them, and lots of other things.

Honestly given the state of some of those bikes I was amused by it all. How would those bikes feel to ride? Maybe I spend way more money than I needed to? I think my bike was worth the money, it’s not that expensive after all, but it still felt weird to see the difference between the people in my small city and the cycling and bike commuting community online.

I will keep going on my weekly rides, and I am still thinking about trying a proper commute to work. I need to ask how to access the bike parking space in my work (yes, there are some spots available!) and to buy a proper rack and locks. But well, that’s a blog post for another day.

This is day 69 of #100DaysToOffload

I decided I would get a used bike from a local bike shop.

I talked to one of the employees there and he offered me some interesting options. I felt a bit more sure of myself, I had watched a lot of bike videos and at least knew what mechanical disc brakes were, for example.

I was still undecided about it, and I kept asking random stuff, what are the types of bikes they sell, what are the price ranges they have, what sizing would fit me better, etc.

The guy was very patient with me. I spent a long while standing there saying absolutely nothing, just looking at the options, researching whatever models I could recognize on my phone while they just waited for me to make my choice. I even asked to the guy for opinions on the online-only brands I mentioned in my last post.

During my decision paralysis, plenty of clients showed up, some adults who wanted a basic service check, others showed up with their kids, with a flat tire or faulty brakes.

When I looked at videos online, I saw a lot of mixed experiences. Videos of bike shop owners, who want to help their customers, warning them that Walmart bikes are bad and difficult to service, but they buy it anyway and now are doomed to struggle with them constantly because their components aren’t as replaceable or repairable. And I saw the opposite side. Customers complaining about small local businesses being disrespectful and elitists, refusing to provide service to them because they didn’t buy a bike from their shop or because the work per hour is more expensive than the whole bicycle.

With the rise of the internet and AI and all of what happened during the pandemic, it seems to me like a lot of people simply don’t trust anymore on the opinion of the experts, even those you can see right in front of you, who constantly work and operate in their are of expertise.

But of course, what if the expert will only lead you to buy something with a big markup for them to get more money, when something cheaper could have been enough? What if they sell me a bad bicycle and I’m ignorant and happy about it and I could have found the same thing elsewhere at half the price?

And online, most videos from content creators and influencers online will also be sponsored by some companies offering dubious services, and one can’t help but wonder if people only care about money instead of being decent with each other, but also that’s just how the system seems to be over in the mainstream web.

But well, in the end, I watched videos from European and American channels, where people ride to work in bikes worth $5,000 and a training wheel installation can cost 50 or 70 bucks.

Most of the bikes I saw people riding are just tools more than recreation, and as such, bike repair and maintenance is common. Honestly, most of the clients seemed pretty humble to me. One of them was a street entertainer who seemed a little drunk, he showed up and said “Hey this isn’t working for me bro… please give it a maintenance for me… thank you by the way, I will pay you later… I’ll be right back! Don’t worry, but fix it, and check the brakes too, okay? all good, I’ll return in an hour” and left the bike there and went elsewhere just like that. No money exchanged, just a loyal clientelle of regular customers. All the other interactions were just as simple and chill. That is what the culture in my country often is like.

So I decided to trust the shop the shop, I got a bike from them. All in all, they were very understanding, and I guess they want to sell stuff after all.

I chose my bike, a Fuji Traverse 1.6, a hybrid bike ideal for city commute and some light dirt paths, I got it used for 432 bucks, and paid an extra 10 bucks to add a kickstand—no installation fee!

I traveled all the way from the bike shop to my house, about 7.5 kilometers or so, which took me about 25 minutes. It was a great ride with just some down and uphills. None of it was a problem at all!

And well, I’ve already gone on a couple of rides and had some more experiences and thoughts to share, which I’ll write for an upcoming post.

TL;DR: I am very happy with my purchase, good stuff!

This is day 65 of #100DaysToOffload

Around 10 years ago I used to have a pretty neat bike, it was a bit big for me but I could use it no problem. It was gifted to me by my uncle and I really liked it. However, we moved, and my dad told me he had to sell it to a friend.

I was very, very upset, but we couldn’t bring it with us, and eventually had to come to terms with it.

A couple years later, my dad gave me another bike, but I kind of neglected it for many years, I don’t know if it felt like betrayal or what but I only really used it twice and it never felt right. The bike was smaller too, with 24” wheels, and I was already (barely) an adult, so I felt too slow with it.

When I had the day off on Monday I decided I’d try and get that old bike up and running. It didn’t work out.

The tires were deflated and had some cracks, so I carried it with me and walked to a workshop to see if they could fix them—it was closed. I walked back and left the bike home, and took a bus to Walmart to buy a pump and inflate the wheels myself—it didn’t work. The bike was in a garage/storage room, a hand-made one with an aluminum ceiling and plenty of gaps, it was easy for moisture, dust and other elements to set in, so there’s that.

Anyway, I figured it wasn’t worth it, and decided that it was too small for me, so I’d get a used bike from a workshop instead.

Yesterday I went back to work, but after my shift was over I went to a bike shop nearby and saw a few options.

Unfortunately I was feeling kinda introverted and could only ask something like “a bike with different speeds that can go uphill and through dirt roads and stuff”, which was as generic as it gets. Anyway I was still offerend a few options, some were way out of my budget (which is around 450 bucks), but some others seemed pretty decent.

I didn’t take note of the brands for this post, I could only remember a Giant which was in reparations and would cost around 290 USD once fixed. I may return today once work is over and try and make some more questions. I literally walked to four other bike workshops from there all over the city—maybe just walking is fine—but most were closed or had a very small catalog.

Once I returned home I checked online for some reviews of affordable bikes in my country. I saw a few interesting options from brands such as Alubike, Gravel and Mercurio that seem to be popular in México and with prices to match the economy here. I’ve been looking at the Gravel Everest and the Mercurio Ranger, for the most part, with the Alubike Sierra as a more expensive option which may be worth the extra.

There are some pros and cons to consider here, I made a list with some more random thoughts:

• Buying online will require me to some assemble the bike, but learning how to do it might be fun.
• I could still assemble it wrong and ruin some part, but I am pretty confident in myself to figure it out.
• For the price of a new budget-friendly bike, I could buy a used one that’s higher quality.
• I am not super sure the bikes available will be higher quality, but it may not matter that much anyway.
• Buying used on a bike shop will let me try it immediately and check how it performs too.
• I could also buy and assemble a new and more known brand bike online, get it serviced, and call it a day.
• A bike shop will guarantee that it’s well assembled and maintained, I can get more equipment there.
• Supporting a small business that brings old bikes to life sounds kinda cool.
• I should still fix my older bike, maybe I could resell it after all.

Anyway, I am still on the fence on all of this, I am trying to figure out where does a bike fits in my current lifestyle. I don’t know if I’d use it to commute to work, since I need to go through a highway with a lot of trailers and trucks and it just seems super scary. By the time I get home it’s already kind of dark too.

So would I only use it during the weekends? Or I should learn how to be safe on the bigger roads? I also really enjoy just taking the bus and having an hour to spend there without worries.

Decisions must be made once again…

This is day 62 of #100DaysToOffload.