I got some money for my birthday yesterday. I didn't get enough to buy my first bmx, so I had to think about what I wanted. After having the money for a full day, I decided a bike was really what I wanted, so I'd borrow a few dollars from my business and buy one. If I was going to do that, I was going to have to go cheap. I found a Huffy bike at Target. It looked stronger than most of the other bikes that were less than $100, so I bought it and headed home.

As soon as I got home, the kids were waiting for me outside. They had their bikes, and were ready to go to the "bike park". I packed up all the bikes and we headed out.

When we got to the bike park, we unloaded the bikes and my son Ryan took off for the hills. I stayed back at the car and rode around for 2 or 3 minutes, trying to get use to my new bike. OK, I thought I was ready, so I headed off to the dirt track.

I thought I'd go up the big hill, which my son is calling "the volcano". In order to get up the hill, I needed to get moving. I threw my weight into the pedels and started gaining speed.

C R A S H ! My weight either broke the one piece sprocket, or it wasn't tight enough. My foot hit the ground, and the rest went to fast to explain. The next thing I knew, I was sliding on my arms and knees. Ouch!



I picked up the bike, and started walking back toward the car. Whoa! The handle bars were bent at their welding points. I was very dissapointed. My Huffy didn't last 5 minutes. Back it went.

My wife took me to a local bike shop, Bingham Cyclery. We priced a Specialized brand bike, which the sales guy said would hold my weight over jumps and things. The bike was $350, so I needed to save some more money.

Although it's not particularly important to the subject, I need to mention that returning the bike was actually harder than I thought. Surely, even a cheap bike should last longer than an hour, right? This one didn't have any weight limits listed, and it looked strong enough. In any case, Target was quite difficult to work with, even though my receipt was only an hour old. I had to talk to 3 people, and raise my voice, before they agreed to give my money back.