Burplefrog!

Hi guys. I suddenly feel like buying a bike. A bicycle, that is. Not a motorcycle. This is because:

1) That day I saw two of my guy friends riding their bikes home. Normally they look normal. But when I saw them they looked very cool. Clearly this must have been because of the bikes they were riding. It's like guitars, you know? If I have a bike, I too will be cool.

2) Another friend of my was telling me how she and the abovementioned two guys rode their bikes to the beach on Saturday. I ALSO WANT!

3) Everyone here rides bikes, and they make it look so easy. I've seen businessmen in suits riding to work. I've seen ladies riding in skirts (and still managing to look elegant). The bike racks outside the school near my house are always full of tiny little bikes and none of them have any training wheels. There are big, safe bike lanes everywhere - in the centre of the city as well as in the suburbs where I live. Even the trains have special carriages with slots for you to put your bicycle into.

4) I take ten minutes to walk from my house to the closest supermarket (which is tiny). With a bike I would probably take ten minutes to ride to this huge supermarket one train station away.

Of course, there are several major reasons why I should not buy a bicycle as well:
1) I don't know any of the proper hand signals, so I would piss people off. Also I think if I tried to do them I would fall off my bike. In addition, a lot of the bikes have pedal brakes (where you pedal backwards to stop the bike). I've never tried to stop a bike that way before. It seems...confusing?

2) Clearly I will change my mind about how cool I look when it's raining/snowing/horribly cold.

3) Bikes are so expensive here, because they're not for leisure. A brand new one costs at least 4000 kr (S$1000) and the cheaper second-hand ones cost between 500-700 kr. And those might be rusty/have spoilt handbrakes/be stolen property and get you in trouble with the police.

4) My bike might get stolen. So far two people I know got their bikes stolen within a week. And my friend told me about this German guy who had three bikes - his first two got stolen and he stole the last because he figured what goes around comes around.

Well...actually I just want a bike because it's cool.