My Bikes

Current Collection

Lily the 2011 Specialized Ariel

Lily (nee Rose) entered my life in July 2011 when I decided that my then-current bicycle was too sluggish and heavy for the amount of riding I wanted to do. She quickly became my commuter, grocery getter, and general use bike. I have her outfitted with a basket, front fender, 600 lumen headlight (I can spotlight deer in the next county!), bell, mirror, rear rack, and a shopping pannier: you know, all the necessities for a commuter/shopping bike. She was my first non-big-box store bicycle and I'm never going back. I can ride fairly comfortably for fifty miles on her, but I don't think I'd want to do much more than that.

Circe the 2012 Specialized Dolce Comp Compact

Circe joined our happy family in February 2012. She's a 54cm road bike and was built for speed. She's my go-to bike for over-fifty mile rides and is decked out with a dropbar mirror and flame stickers which make her go faster! After a month in my home, I swapped out her plastic starter pedals for Shimano PD-M520 pedals and have fully embraced clipless riding.

Kate the 2012 Trek Classic Ladies Cruiser

Kate was a spur-of-the-moment impulse purchase in March 2012. She's the first cruiser I've had since childhood and the floral motif, pink rims, and pink streamers make me giggle every time I look at her. While waiting for my husband Scott to test ride a couple of cyclocross bikes, I noticed a row of brightly colored cruisers at the front of the Vienna branch of Spokes, Etc. I sat on the blue one and decided I needed to take a test ride as well. I grinned from ear to ear during the entire ride and, despite her impracticality, I purchased her without a second thought. She's my "slow" bike and great for cruising along the local trails and on the Outer Banks. Everybody smiles when they see her. How could you not smile at all that girlyness?

Beatrix the 2012 Public Bikes C8

Beatrix is my upright city bike, despite my living in deepest, darkest suburbia. She joined the bike stable in June 2012 after much online and real life hunting for my very own loop frame love. She has all the comforts desired for a commuter bike including fenders, rear rack, chain guard, grippy Dimension pedals, Velo Orange leather sprung saddle and matching ergonomic grips, a Wald basket, Po Campo Loop pannier, and an Electra bell which is too darn cheerful for words. It's taken a a while to acclimate to the posture this bicycle requires (plus finding the right saddle took a lot of trial and error), but she's definitely worth it. I feel terribly stylish when riding her to work and/or the grocery store.


Previous Rides

CC the Schwinn Clear Creek hybrid

CC was my gateway back into the cycling life in September 2009. I had been awarded a few gift certificates for outstanding performance at work, and after spending a month debating what to blow the windfall on, I finally settled on purchasing a bike. She was my first commuter bike. She crumpled a road bike and seriously maimed another rider when he T-boned me on the W&OD (she got a bent wheel and I got a concussion out of the ordeal). I knew she was heavy, but didn't just how heavy and slow she was until I got the Ariel and she was unceremoniously relegated to the basement in the summer of 2011. She's gone on to a greener pasture, though, and lives with my sister in Memphis as of November 2011.

My childhood and college-era bikes didn't have names and I don't have pictures of them. My first bicycle was a beautiful sparkly purple creation with a floral banana seat, streamers, and a white plastic basket covered in plastic flowers. I loved that bike so much and it was the perfect representation of freedom. I rode up and down packed dirt roads of Heth, AR, and down the two-lane highway to my grandmother's house a couple of miles away. I received a Honda Spree Scooter for my twelfth birthday and no longer needed a bike because I could go farther afield.

My college bicycle was maroon, silver, and gold. It was a "girl's" bike with a slanted top bar. Mom got it for me just before I left for my sophomore year of college and it lived on my sorority dorm's covered deck. The campus of the University of Southern Mississippi was fairly small and I didn't need a bike to get around, but it was the vehicle of choice for hanging out with my junior-year boyfriend. We put a lot of miles on our bikes riding around Hattiesburg, MS. Sadly, this bike was stolen shortly after I moved into my first apartment in Memphis, TN.

I've had two more bikes since then, but I don't remember anything about them. I purchased another bike in Memphis and it was stolen shortly after I moved into my second apartment. (Memphis is hard on bikes, I guess.) The next bike was a gift from a boyfriend and I rode it around our Herndon, VA, neighborhood. When we broke up and I moved into an apartment that I thought was too small for a bicycle (in hindsight, it really wasn't), I donated the bike to Goodwill.