I’ve gotten use to biking into town on a regular basis. It’s not your typical workout, that’s for sure, but it definitely does the trick. Plus, getting into town provides a good change of pace. Visthar is serene, quite, and for the most part comfortable. Going into town on the other hand is always a harrowing experience -- to put it lightly. If you’re planning on biking into town I can make some suggestions that might save you some hassle, as well as some broken bones, potentially.

Selecting a bike from among Visthar’s exquisite selection is perhaps one of the most important discussions you’ll make during your life. Personally I would rank it up there with those life altering decisions like: will I get married? Should I go to college? What career should I go into? And, do I really need this extra large cookie-dough blizzard?

The bikes all have a nifty little key operated self-locking mechanism, and should you be doing any shopping while in town you will probably need to use this. Subsequently, if you are doing anything more substantial than just riding into town, then turning around and riding back out you will not be able to take bikes #3 and #4 as their keys have gone missing.

Of the remaining four I recommend avoiding #1 and #6, if at all possible. The seats on both of these beauts’ are detaching from the rest of the bicycle in one way or another. If you are riding on #1 you are likely to get dumped off the back; in fact I don’t think there is anyway to avoid that eventuality, so on second thought, just don’t take #1.

I once made the unfortunate mistake of taking #6. The seat is falling off to one side, but hey I thought I could manage. In order to make my particular incident with #6 more understandable I feel like I should to digress briefly and talk about Indian horn honking etiquette. Apparently, in India a driver is obligated to honk every time he or comes within visual range of another living creature, whether that be another car, rickshaw, cow, dog, whatever. Also, I personally feel as though Indian drivers like to sneak up behind unsuspecting American bicyclists, and when the biker is least expecting it, to honk as loud as they possibly can and scare the masala dosa out of that poor American. That’s just a personal theory though, as I have thus far been unable to prove it definitively. Anyways, I was riding lovely #6 minding my own business, and up sneaks a sly little rickshaw driver. Of course he blows his horn when I’m least expecting it, and like always I jerked franticly as my sympathetic nervous system began to kick into gear. Well if you recall the seat of lucky #6 is slipping off to one side and when I spazzed it suddenly fell and I got a nice sharp rusty spring in the left glute. Thanks rickshaw driver.

So, in all actuality you would be best off avoiding #6 as well. You could, however take #5. But if you do happen to take #5 make sure you keep a close eye on the tire pressure as the back tire always seems to go flat. Let me spare you some headache and warn you that you will have about as much fun as a clam at a clam bake trying to get back to Visthar on a bike with a flat tire.

Really though, your safest bet is probably with bike #2. As of yet I have not seen or heard of anything going wrong with that particular bike. Of course, that could also be related to the fact that I have yet to ride #2.