Gary Fisher Napa

Price Paid:  $345.00 at Bicycles Unlimited

Favorite Ride:
Gary Fisher Napa

Summary:
This bike is a joy to ride.I just turned 46 and the years of punishing my body through a variety of sports from serious mountain biking to road racing have taken its toll. This bike is just plain fun and comfortable to ride.I can still put in a 10 to 20 mile ride and my back, butt and legs feel great. I highly recommend this bike to anyone who is looking for performance and quality in a hybrid confort bike. .After owning this bike for 2 weeks my wife purchased one also, she loves it.

Strengths:
Upright riding position -adjustable shocks -confortable ride and gary fisher quality.Great hybrid comfort bike.

Weaknesses:
None

Price Paid:  $350.00 at Outback Bicycle

Bike Setup:
Stock, with added aluminium rack and Cateye lights.

Summary:
I love this bike. Look, I'm pushing forty and I no longer have Rashomon-like delusions of heroically charging across mountaintops on my mighty steed. Neither my lower back nor my knees will put up with that kind of nonsense anymore. I want comfort . . and shock absorbers, lots of shock absorbers.

When I was younger I rode the standard ten-speed, but I no longer “feel the need . . the need for speed”. I’m just not willing to ride on main roads with Atlanta traffic whooshing past me mere inches away.

Also, I have no particular need to get anywhere. I’m not going to be loading-up panniers and taking any treks anytime soon. Twenty miles? HAH! In this heat, in the condition I’m in, I’m lucky to go five before I melt.

The only reason I have for riding a bike is to be riding a bike. I live right between Decatur and Little Five Points. In the short time I’ve had this bike I’ve ridden it to a festival, rode the Freedom Parkway Trail, cruised the back streets, swooped down hills in twenty-forth gear and easily inched up hills in first, bunny hopped six inch curbs, rumbled over hex plate sidewalks. I feel like a kid again.

This is a bike for grown-ups, mature people who cannot see spending in excess of a thousand dollars for a toy, but can see spending less than four-hundred for a comfortable seat with a good view that is more healthy and social than the couch and rot-box.

This is a “nice” bike. Even the silver and white paint job says, “I’m a nice bike.” It ain’t no bad-boy ride. Women give me sweet glances because I look like a respectable man of means. Serious gear-heads give my bike respectful looks because (like a Backpacker Martin) it ain’t a whole lot, but it’s still a freakin’ Gary Fisher!

Strengths:
A1 quality aluminium frame.
Front fork and seat post shocks.
Fat, 1.95 inch, goo filled Hutchison Acrobat tires.
Shimano parts all over.

Weaknesses:
People pan the Suntour shocks, but I weigh two-hundred pounds and have these XCC-E's set to the softest preload and haven't had any complaint yet.
The stem could raise higher, so I could sit even more upright.
It needs a couch seat.

Similar Products Used:
Schwinn Super Le Tour (yes, the red one with the shifters on the down tube and the suicide brakes:P I still have it:)