Cruising Into Summer With Sport Chek #SweatBetter

Happy first day of summer!!!

I mentioned in my last post that my quest to re-finding my fitness self was going to be a multi-part endeavour. I’ve been plugging away at yoga even if for only 10 minutes at a time since I hit publish last week, but that alone isn’t going to be enough.

Since I decided to give up racing (I still am going to do a couple 5K’s here and there, even if they are more walks than anything – just for fun) the one thing I have missed is getting to exercise outside. I like walking, and want to get into doing more hiking, but both of those can be kind of boring when done on their own. I’ve never been really into biking, but for some reason I got it in my head last fall that what I wanted was a cute, mint green cruiser that I could zip around on in the warmer months. Our mail box is about a kilometer away from our house, and I will often walk to it in the summer, but it can be a pain if there are a bunch of packages, or if it’s really hot out so I thought a bike with a basket would be great.

In the winter I started casually looking around online to see what types of cruisers were available, how much they costs, and if they had any that I really liked, and time and time again found myself coming back to this one on the Sport Chek website.

Since I know nothing about bikes aside from the fact that I know it’s important to get the right size, I decided before getting anything I should go in and talk to the employees at my local Sport Chek to see if the bike I had my eye on was an appropriate size for me. Because I’m still a little shy about recording video in-store unless they know I’m there to do that, I vlogged what I found out and then the whole process of getting it, which you can watch below.

It’s taken me a little bit of time to get around to putting this post together because I was fairly sure Ollie was in the video footage, and I didn’t think I was ready to see her yet 🙁 But happily, this weekend when I started editing, I was so happy to see her fat little grey self come strolling around the corner. You’ll get to see her twice in the short video!

I apologize that the video ends sort of abruptly. I brought the bike home the day Ollie passed away, so I was definitely not in any state to be seen on camera. :/

If you can’t (or didn’t want to) watch the video, basically what I found out was that cruisers are the “stretch limos” of the bike world. Because the seat is placed differently than on other bikes, most anyone can drive them – which meant that pretty green cruiser should be perfect for me! The bike was ordered on Thursday, and the following Wednesday it was here!

Sport Chek bikes come un-asembled when you order them online, but you can take them into your local store and drop it off to have it assembled free of charge. I was told that they are usually ready to pick up again in 24 hours or less, but since I dropped mine off the weekend of the Apple Blossom Festival (which is a huge deal in my area) I wasn’t expecting it to be done right away, and then I think they forgot to call me to tell me it was ready. I left it there for a week before calling to see if it was ready, I was half waiting to see how long it would take for them to call but I was too busy to go pick it up before then anyway. When I did finally call it was ready and waiting so the following day Cathy and I went and picked her up!

Again they were really nice in-store, they told me that not only did I get the assembly for free, but that they will do minor tune-ups for a full year after purchase. So if it feels like it’s not driving quite straight, or the brakes are a little off, etc. I can bring it back in and they will fix it. That is a great perk that I had no idea they offered!

In fact, I didn’t realize they even serviced bikes, that’s how terribly unobservant I am. I thought they mostly did skate sharpening and other hockey related things and that was it. I am so out of touch sometimes, haha.

Once home there was only one thing my bike needed – a sweet basket. And one quick virtual trip to Amazon and I had a package arriving on my doorstep within days.

Seriously people, how fab does she look?

I can’t even.

I swear this bike screams Suzi, and Suzi is having a slight love affair with the bike…

My husband saw that picture and jokingly said, “You better not be hugging that bike!” Oh but I am…..oh but I am… 😀

And don’t worry yourselves, I’ll be wearing a bicycle helmet when driving – and wearing more appropriate shoes too.

Yes indeed, I am pretty darn smitten and am very much looking forward to having some fun bike excursions this summer. I love that my cruiser is super basic – no gears to shift (because let’s be honest, I never learned how to shift properly so my bike chain always falls off when I try) and it has the backwards brakes (pedal back to stop – like a 4 year old’s bike. Which I love, haha).

I don’t plan on doing anything more than cruise along taking fun, but slow bike rides this summer so this is perfect.

[Tweet “Find out how @sportchek can help you #SweatBetter this summer with their bike shop & serivce dept! #sweatpink #fitfluential”]

So I’ve traded in my running sneakers for wheels, so hopefully I’ll still cover as many miles (or more) as I would have other years, but instead of doing them on foot, I’ll be on two wheels.

And that is part two of Suzi’s new fitness focus. But I’m not done quite yet. This is a three pronged focus of YOGA – BIKING – ?????? Part three shall be revealed next week. 🙂

Thank you again to Sport Chek for working with me on this and helping to make my mint green cruiser dreams come true!

If you are in the market for a new bike, check out their selection in store and online – and remember, if you order online you can take it to your local store to have it assembled free of charge. And regardless of where you bought your bike, you can take it in and have their service department take care of minor or major service needs. Check your local store’s In-Store Services to see all they offer.

Disclosure: This post had been sponsored by Sport Chek, all opinions expressed on this blog are entirely my own.