I don’t care how old you are or how much you cycle, a total beginner, casual cyclist or professional rider, getting a new bike is always exciting. I love the new bike feeling and today was no exception.

My BMX was getting old, out of date and worn out. Just before my trip to Canada and The States the frame cracked which was the final nail in the coffin for the old girl. I gave it away to a friend and vowed to get a new one when I got back. I haven’t bought a brand new BMX in over 10 years. My last couple of bikes have been second hand or built up from a collection of random parts so I thought it would be good to start again from scratch and just buy a complete.

I popped upto Chaineys Cycles in MK to see my friend Oli. I had been looking at new bikes and I knew I wanted something shorter than my previous bike. My old Federal had a 20.85″ toptube length which I always felt was a little too long. I wanted something around 20.5″ so I could spin it a bit easier. Chaineys had just got the new line of United and Fit bikes in stock. I knew a couple of the Fits had a 20.5″ TT so I took a look at those. I settled on the Fit Dugan 1. It was within my budget and was the size I was after.

SAMSUNG DIGITAL MOVIE

I’m not a massive fan of the colour, it’s pretty offensive on the eyes but that doesn’t affect how it rides. It’s left hand drive but I’m planning on re-lacing the rear wheel with my Profile hub as soon as I get a 9 tooth cassette for it, so I’ll change it to RHD then.

I went for a 20 minute blast on it this evening and it’s going to take a while to get used to. The main thing is the length. It feels REALLY short compared to my old bike. I like it though, it feels nice and flicky. The huuuuuuge tyres are going to take a bit of getting used to. They kind of pull you to one side or the other if you lean even slightly to one side during  manuals. Not sure I like that. Lastly, I think I’ll leave the front brake on for a bit too. I’ve always struggled with footjams and I almost nailed a nose stall with the brake after a few runs. I may swap the levers over though, I almost went over the bars a couple of times because I pulled the wrong lever by mistake!

I’m looking forward to riding it more. Big thanks to Oli Morris and the Chaineys crew for hooking me up. It felt weird not having a BMX in the shed. Happy days 🙂