This is the bike I bought. I bought it just before our ride to Reach, and it was such a treat to have the new wheels for the ride. I was riding it when I took this video, and I was riding it this last weekend on our 25-mile ride from Hunstanton to Wells-next-to-Sea, which took us through farmland and small villages to the beach:
And, I had planned on riding it in 3 weeks on the London to Cambridge ride, which I believe we've mentioned 11 billion times on the blog. I don't have a picture of me riding this bike, and now I never will. It got stolen last night.
I don't mean to be all melodramatic about it. OK, yes I do. As someone who's had her wallet stolen (in Bethesda) and house broken into (in DC), I'm no stranger to crime. But I LIKED this bike. I even cried when JT woke me up this morning to tell me it was gone. And where was it gone from? From its parking spot in front of our front door, right underneath our bedroom window, locked to a drainpipe around the frame and front wheel. No, not the kind of drainpipe that can be moved.
In a way, though, it wasn't a surprise. Our neighbor's bike was stolen last week -- it was the replacement he bought for the one that got stolen last year. Last year 4,964 bikes were reported stolen in the county, half of which were in Cambridge. So, it's practically a rite of passage to have your bike stolen in Cambridge. In fact, when JT walked into his office this morning the first conversation he overheard was another editor talking about her bike getting nicked on Friday.
JT alerted our bike shop, so when I walked by there later today looking like, well, like someone had stolen my bike, The Nice Bike Man offered his condolences and told me to come back tomorrow, he has some nice bikes he thinks I'll like. I bought the last bike from them because they are a knowledgeable father-son team who take good care of us (or rather, our bikes). But I hope I don't have to make a habit of buying bikes. Sigh.
