I'm not the best at following advice. I went in to the local Giant dealer to check out the Roam 3, but he didn't have any out in the main area. He showed me the next model up, the Roam 2, so I test rode that one for a little bit outside the shop. The seat was slightly too high, but other than that, it felt a heck of a lot better than any bicycle I'd ridden before.

Maybe it was simply the commission talking, but the salesman was pretty excited to show off the Roam 2, and I decided to go ahead and go with it. It was a couple hundred more than the Roam 3, which was on sale, but I let him convince me the hydraulic brakes and different derailleur were enough to justify the price difference.

I went with the cheapest helmet ($40) they had since he didn't have any compelling reason to go with anything more expensive.

Maybe I'll regret not trying a lot of other bicycles, but on the other hand, not knowing any better might make me regret less. Ha ha. But I apologize for not doing my due diligence and making you all proud.

I didn't buy any other accessories there, but I ordered a mini tool and seat post bag off of Amazon.com. My dad had a spoke tool and tools for taking out the inner tubes. I think he has both a floor pump and an air compressor for inflating the tires. I may pick up one of the really tiny pumps for when I'm out on rides. And a spare tube in the seat post bag is the plan. What other accessories or tools should I have on-hand at some point? I'll have to accumulate over time, but it would be nice to be able to prioritize.

I'll probably get a rack for over the rear tire, too. I think I'll actually use the bicycle to do my grocery shopping. Oh, but since I like to do my shopping at night, I'll have to look at lights, too. While the streets I'll be riding on for that are well-lit, I think I'll do other night riding, too, so I should probably get something that will illuminate my path. I see DiNotte's name come up when looking for good bicycle lights, but their packages seem to be more than half of what I paid for the bike itself.

Anyway, I look forward to breaking it in a bit this coming weekend.