Coral Way Bicycle Shop

IMO Miami leaves much to be desired as far as quality of life goes.  Sure we have beaches, beautiful weather, and Cuban coffee on every corner, but in my day dreams I long for a place that's kind of like a college town, or I guess like many cities out West I've never visited except through the Interwebs.  A place where I could frequent awesome outdoor markets, mingle with hippies, raise a couple chickens, and ride bike everywhere.  Safely.

I am really, really clumsy (I have to move very consciously and slowly whenever I'm very CLOSE to a certain someone to avoid kneeing them in their privates or elbowing their eye-seriously, I do that kind of stuff all the time *sad face*), accident prone, and then again, Miami has horrible drivers.  I would love to be able to ride a bicycle around town without fearing for my life, or at least find some places to ride where cars aren't allowed so a casual jaunt doesn't evolve into extreme sports.

Well, the first step in riding bicycle around is having a bicycle to ride.  I covet those amazing vintagesque bikes that you find nowdays, but I'm trying to save money and really can't justify buying a bike when I know I won't ride it much.  I have a gorgeous, fifteen year old Marin bicycle I bought in another life that was moldering in my mom's utility shed that I finally dragged over to Coral Way Bicycle Shop to get tuned up and have the inner tubes replaced.  This shop is close to home and locally owned.  I like having the opportunity to feel virtuous.  I can't really comment on their prices because I have no point of comparison but what I imagined I'd pay and what I paid were about the same so I felt satisfied.  They are very busy so I hope that means that far more seasoned and knowledgable people than myself trust the shop and the employees.  I was acknowledged quickly, treated well and didn't have to wait long at all.  I'll be using them again.

On a related note, why are bicycle helmets so ugly?  Allegra showed me these cute Yakay helmets that of course they don't sell in the US yet...I can't believe no one has thought of this yet?  All those clever people in those awesome cities out West that I idiolize so much are letting us down, design-wise!  Better step up!