Family Biking

We had an idea, and I must say, it turned out to be a brilliant one.  After the little guy was given a new bike for his last birthday, and learned to ride it like a champ, we decided to get bikes for the entire family.  I did my research, and typically, started wanting higher and higher quality bikes.  I quickly learned through several posting and reviews that, although convenient, purchasing a bike from large retailers ( Target, Toys'R'Us, Wal-Mart, etc.) is a mistake.  In the end, I found a website where my cost was only slightly more that these retailers, for far better quality bikes, delivered right to your door with free shipping.  I'll get to the site later.  For now, suffice it to say, stay away from the big stores.  Actually, the best place to buy is a local bike shop, if you can find the right price.  Chances are, you'll need to bring the bike there for a tune-up anyway (a mistake I made).  Speaking of which, I highly recommend Pompton Cycle in Pompton Lakes, NJ.  The hours are a bit strange, and it's hard to get the shopkeeper to answer the phone, but he did a

 great job and priced extremely competitively.  Tune-ups for $49.  The other 2 local shops I called started at $60 and $69.

My "mistake" was not checking the bikes before riding.  I assembled each myself, which was not terrible as a first timer.  What I neglected to do, was examine the chain and derailleurs properly after assembly.  As a result, I damaged my bike the first time I tried to change gears.  Needed to replace 2 parts day one.  Each bike was assembled correctly, but the chain was not on the proper gear, and once the shifting mechanism tried to move the chain, YIKES!!!.  Stupid me kept pedaling, thinking "Oh, it'll fix itself..." meanwhile bending and breaking critical parts.

Bikes, as I found, can be pretty expensive and I was lucky to stumble across an inexpensive site: Bikes Direct.  They use PayPal and ground shipping is free.  I decided to go with a full suspension mountain bike, thinking at some point, I'll hit the trails in nearby Ringwood State Park.

So, I got a charcoal grey Gravity FSX 1.0 from Gravity Bikes

and for my beautiful, spectacular wife, who likely will not accompany me through the wooded trails, a Windsor Dover 1 comfort bike

I quickly became jealous of her cushioned seat and will likely add a gel cover to mine or replace the eat altogether.  No point in being a hero.  I'd rather enjoy the ride.

After getting both bikes after the tune-up / repair, we decided to go back to our original damaging test ride site, the Saddle River Bike Trail.  We had a blast, and even followed that up with a ride around town.  It so much better, to me, than walking, jogging, hiking, kick boxing, or whatever.  Getting the bikes from one place to another is a bit of a hassle, but that's the only real downer.  I'm looking forward to all the places we can ride.

Which brings me to the main point of this...

Hopefully people actually read this and comment about places to ride.  I've discovered many, many resources on the internet for rail trails and greenways, trail maps, street routes, and so on. Hopefully, some experienced family riders can throw some recommendations on here.  I'll add to it as our experiences allow.  The Saddle River Trail is a great place, even though I have no basis for comparison right now.  Some of the people are a bit inconsiderate, but you have to expect that to some extent at a public park.  Another mistake I made was expecting the little guy to keep up with us on a single speed Mongoose BMX bike.  It's just not fair to him.  We have 21 speeds and he has 1.  We'll correct that soon enough.  Hope to see some comments soon.  Thanks for your time!