Who's a Pretty Baby? Aw, Who's a Pretty Baby?

I'm in love with a bike named Jake. Jake the Snake, to be precise (the brand of the bike is Kona, the model is "Jake the Snake," if you wonder why I keep calling him that, haha). On Saturday, I got up early and ventured down to Portland to Sellwood Cycle Repair. Alllllll the Kona dealers in Western Washington were sold out of the Jake the Snake in my size, but I found this one in Portland. Hmm, I should have called around to other Portland stores to see if I could get a bike bidding war going, but I was SO EXCiTED to finally find one in stock, I didn't even think of it.

After arriving at the store shortly after it opened, I met my new man. Love at first sight, I tell you! I took it for a couple long test rides and it was everything I had hoped. I had ridden the base model of the bike in Seattle, the "Jake," and it fit me perfectly and was a wonderful ride. "Jake the Snake" has upgraded shifting components, though, and after riding a different bike with the better parts, I knew it was worth the upgrade. "Jake" had the same shifting components as my road bike, and I knew I wanted better this time around. This bike also has disk brakes, which are more effective and will be especially so if I can talk myself into foul weather (or moderately foul) commuting.

A night on the town with my cool ride. Okay, I left Jake the Snake at home, haha.

Yesterday was my first commute home on the new bike and it was glorious! I wouldn't say it was any faster: Jake has wider, knobby tires that are slower than a road bike's skinny, slick tires. I got home in the same amount of time at a higher level of exertion. But the smile on my face was twice as big! Okay, for one, Jake is just a really cool bike. Look at that bright green! The wider tires make for a much nicer ride, not having to worry about Seattle's bad pavement through downtown and the International District (I think we are supposed to call it Chinatown now but I am not sure).

Jake's a real looker, too. My biking coworker friend had told me people would chat me up about the bike because it's so cool and so distinctive looking. Sure enough, two men on the way home separately rode along side me and talked about the bike. Do you race cyclocross? No, but I am looking into it, I said, truthfully!

This morning I told my friend that I will have to have a custom bike sticker made that says, "No pictures, please," haha. You know, you can actually make custom bike stickers. I crack myself up.

Seriously, I crack myself up. :)

I'll end the blog here because all I think about is my new bike, my new bike, my new bike. I had a fun time staying with Kim on the whirlwind trip - we got all dolled up like the fancy ladies we are and went to a friend of her's birthday party. That was fun - I have been feeling like a MAJOR FRUMP, so it was good for me to feel all pretty. It has even inspired me to go two whole work days without wearing yoga pants to work, hahahaha.