The process of buying a bike and making up my mind.

February 6, 2022

It’s 2am and I can’t sleep. I might as well work some more on my journal. I know once I hit the road it won’t be so easy to update.

Yesterday I picked up my new to me TerraTrike GTS. I bought it from Ajo Bikes in Tucson. Up until last week I didn’t know what kind of trip I was taking. All I knew was I narrowed it down to either finishing the last 300 miles of the Arizona trail that I had left to complete the trail. Or some sort of bike tour.

Sandra and I starting the Arizona trail in 2015. We had to stop after hiking 500 miles due to a knee injury that was effecting Sandra.

Long story short the bike trip won as a tour of Baja was always one of my bucket list items.

This wasn’t my first bike tour. Four years ago Sandra, my former wife and I ride our bikes from Flagstaff, Arizona to Colorado. We took the scenic route through Utah on our way to Colorado.

Last tour I took my Easy racers tour Easy. I loved a lot of things about this bike. It was fast and comfortable. The major downside was the terrible side pull brakes and the limited availability of larger tires for the oddly sized 20” front tire.

When I flew into Arizona I started to look at used bikes on Craigslist. I still hadn’t decided what kind of bike I wanted to take on the trip. Baja is covered in empty beaches and sandy roads. I figured a fat bike would be perfect for this trip.

The problem with a fat bike was I had an accident at work where I hurt my back and ever since then I’ve had a lot of neck and shoulder pain whenever I’ve gone on a short bike ride.

I knew a fat bike could take me anywhere I wanted but it would do me no good if every mile was torture from shoulder pain.

I started to check out a few different recumbents. I had also been thinking of trikes since that seems to be where all the research in development in recumbents is these days.

I hopped on a few different used recumbents and they all felt pretty good right away. I knew in my mind now it was 60/40 bike tour over a Thru hike. I went down to Tucson to visit my friend Sharky and look at bikes. I found a tour easy that was in great shape. It was newer than my old Tour Easy. It had more modern components including vbrakes and a 20” wheel size that is much easier to find outside of a recumbent shop.

I really loved the Tour Easy but I imagined Baja tearing up the narrow wheels. I’d like the ability to explore dirt roads on this trip. The tour easy can do it. But it would be a slow , rough ride. I told the gentleman that owned the bike that I liked it and if I didn’t find anything else today that I’d come back and purchase it. But I had the made the dive from Phx and I wanted to look at all the bikes that I lined up.

My next stop was Ajo Bikes. I had been in there 15 years ago when I lived in Tucson for just under a year. I bought a Rans crank forward bike from them last time I was there.

When I arrived the shop was full of trikes. They even had some electric and fat bike trikes! Long story long after a morning or trying out bikes and a delicious lunch at Govindas, I now owned a trike.

Govindas does a vegan and vegetarian Indian buffet. It might be my favorite place to eat in Tucson.

I was both excited and scared. I’d spent more money on that bike than any bike I’d had before it and my test ride considered of no more than a few loops around the parking lot.

One of the many bikes I looked at. This as an adv 4.2 that’s sold at REI. This is probably the route I would have gone if I didn’t get the trike.

Found this used action bent at Sun Cycles in PHX. It was nice but not the right fit.

The Tour Easy that I found in Tucson. Great price and a great deal but I think Mexico would eat this bike alive.

A neat trike that was parked in front of the shop. Had a chat with the owner. Nice guy and loved the gadget aspect of trikes. I wonder if he was an engineer?

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