I got a new bike!

Or, "I need a hemorrhoid donut to sit on."

I bought a bike on Friday. Off of Craigslist. I thought from the language in the ad and the subsequent unintelligible voicemail that I was dealing with a non-native English speaker, but it was actually a 15-year-old kid who's probably helping to support his family with his Craigslist bike sales. I don't even want to know where this bike came from.

I took it over to the local bike co-op to have them check it out and make sure it was mostly okay. They did a little shumpin' shumpin' with the rear wheel alignment and the gear shift, I bought a lock, and I was good to go. I got a U-lock, but I think I'm actually going to return it and get a cable lock instead.

Fly Girl took me out on my inaugural ride. She bikes for exercise. That's her thing. I run, she bikes. So she has the gear and knows where to go and all that stuff. So we were out for about 3 hours, with a stop in the middle in Uptown for snacks and a quick stop at the Gap. (I don't know, it was right there.) She figures we did a good 20 miles. My legs were fine, my wind was fine, but my crotch is killing me. It's the bottom of my hip bones. Not up by my tail bone, but farther forward. Right where I was sitting on the seat.

So now I've got a list of things I want for the bike, and things I "need" for the bike. The thing I know I need for sure is either a slip-on seat cover or a new seat all together. Things I really ought to get include a tire pump, a water bottle and a holder for it, and maybe some sort of bag or rack to carry stuff in/on. And then I want a pair of those fingerless gloves with the padded palms. FG has some and they're pretty nifty. REI is having a clearance sale this week, and I saw a bunch of this stuff listed as being on sale online, so I'm-a go check them out.

I've also got all these grand ideas about biking places and thus not driving and thus saving some gas. We'll see how that goes.