Childhood dreams, two decades later

A couple of years ago, Eric and I did a week long bike trip as our summer vacation. We tuned up our bikes, packed up our panniers and headed out for the open road. About 500 km later when the trip was done, we learned that biking is a hard but fun way to travel and that if you're going to do it every day for a little over a week, you need a good seat.

Ever since that trip though, we haven't done any hard core biking. Perhaps my very long biketrip days are over. If that's the case, then I might just have to get this:



This is the bike of my wildest childhood dreams. (Keep in mind, I'm the only girl with two brothers, and my first bike was a hand-me-down from my older brother). Yes, it's a Hello Kitty Cruiser by Nirve. It even has Hello Kitty heads imprinted on the tires.

The first time I saw one, I think my inner child squealed with glee (or at least, I hope it was just my inner child, and not the mature, outer-persona). In Ottawa, you can actually buy these lovely Nirve cruisers at Joe Mamma in the Glebe.

Nirve makes some pretty sweet looking cruisers in their Classic, Island (love these too), Street/Strip and Chopper series. Then they've got a separate line of co-branded cruisers. Besides Hello Kitty, they also do John Deere and Paul Frank bikes.

I guess it's a good thing they didn't have these around when I was a kid because the Hello Kitty bike of my dreams, at $280 US is a lot more than the Canadian Tire bike I got handed down. I suppose that's the good thing about being a 'grown-up' -- you can buy your own toys.