Originally Posted by
pastorbobnlnh
It's pretty flat in Cleveland (I'm guessing), your commute on nice days is relatively short, and the wheels are in good condition. Why not ride them and save your money for when you may be ready for an upgrade from the Varsity. This could occur in MT where the riding may be more challenging (again I'm guessing), and at this time you would want a lighter bike with different gearing.
This is spot on. I don't think I'll ever be doing super hilly terrain (not in good enough shape, haha), and Missoula as a city proper is relatively flat (I think). Also, I just discovered that Missoula has a community shop that has a
'free cycle' program where after taking a class and doing some volunteering, you can build a bike for free from their parts. This seems pretty perfect for me, since I want to learn more about bike maintenance & do some hands on work. And I will get to meet some probably pretty cool people and get a bike (more suited for the things I want to do with it) out of it, pretty sweet deal.
Regarding the rear rack, I think I'm just gonna wait til I get to Montana and see what the lbses have to offer. And before buying panniers or other baskets, I will see how bungeeing my backpack to the rack goes, since I don't think I'd usually need any more carrying capacity than that.
Originally Posted by
dddd
Varsities are good bikes for me, and I recommend them as long as the rider selects a frame size that seems to be on the big size. These frame's angles will make a large frame feel much smaller once the rider is underway, so best if the bike at first seems too big or almost too big.
Very nice color btw!
Thanks! The paint is in pretty good condition considering that my mom used the bike a ton as a kid/teen and wasn't overly careful with keeping it nice. Just a few places where it's crumbling off, and some nicks.
I'm not sure of the size of the bike, but it is just a tad too big for me (but feels totally comfortable), so that's good! Like if I straddle it, I can just comfortably stand flat footed over the top tube.