looked good on paper, rode great in the mud

Long, long ago in a house far away, while Kris and I were scrambling through life-- working, changing diapers, feeding babies, and chasing toddlers-- my bike was stolen right out from under my nose...literally, right out of our garage.  In our sleepless stupor and not to mention being just plain broke, we did not replace it.  Didn't really matter because we still had Kris's bike for one adult and we could not ride all together as a family until about two years ago when Tucker finally mastered riding his bike.  Last year both kids grew into new geared bikes to better conquer the neighborhood hills.  And...it was time to for adults to catch up.

Turns out that actually test riding a bike is much more difficult than we thought. Almost none of the local shops had the bikes with the right components at the right price in the store. After trying a few brands and versions, I ended up putting down a deposit on one that looked good on paper so that I could try it out in real life.  Fortunately, the real life version was everything I had hoped plus more including remote lockout on shocks and a super stiff frame.

It's sitting in the garage, awfully shinny, just itchin' to get dirty. Oooh yea.