An elegant weapon (or ride) for a more civilized age.

“This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or as random as a blaster, but an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.”  Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars IV: A New Hope

When I first typed up this quote, I originally thought I’d end up writing about the Padawan Learner’s former life as a fencing student, and what a fascinating and revealing (personality-wise) sport it is. But as I sat here, preparing to put the words up, I got to thinking about my bike. My mom’ed-out, no frills bike. My comfortable, cheap to operate and safe to use bike. The three of us are big fans of our bikes.

The Padawan Learner and I have navigated the bus-front bike racks and can get all round town now. We frequently pedal into our little neighborhood village area for the library, a couple of restaurants, the hardware store, the coffee and ice cream shops, the bank and a great little middle eastern store with excellent hummus and grocery basics. I really wish a little bakery would move in. There’s an old-fashioned barber, too, which the Padawan Learner used to go to, but he’s since grown fond of longer styles that the 65+ year old barbers don’t even want to try to figure out.

Snapping open the rear baskets allows us to drag home a weeks’ worth of grocery odds and ends at the supermarket about a mile away (although it’s a two mile, roundabout, bike ride away since there’s no bike path on nor any sidewalks next to this 2nd busiest road in the state). Those baskets were just about the best internet find I’ve ever made. They hook right onto my rear bike rack. I installed them myself.

For the record, we’re in the market for a new bike for the Padawan Learner, so if you’ve got any advice for a reasonably priced bike for a 5′4″, 90# boy that’s growing like a weed and will probably top out around 6′ tall and be thin as a rail, let me know. We want something useful, versus something trendy or sport oriented. We’re city folk. We live in the city. We ride on the roads, at real people speeds and do not wear lycra. Ever. When we’re really “going country”, we will occasionally will find ourselves on a Rails-to-Trails bike path or in a campground. I’m keeping up with the local Craig’s List but that hasn’t proven too useful so far - lots of old road and high-end mountain bikes but nothing with fenders, a rear rack or even a remotely upright seating position. With him really putting the miles on this summer, for our commute to and from the CSA, we really need to get him a new bike. The $79 “special” from the megaToys’R store a year and a half ago served its “major growth spurt” purpose, but just isn’t going to be able to hold up much longer. Any ideas?