This could be dangerous - and tons of fun!

Meg and I bought bikes today. We've been talking about it for years (ever since our bikes got ruined in our first NY winter when we didn't have any place to bring them inside in the snow) and now we definitely have a place to keep them inside and I'm sick of the tube commute (8 miles in well over an hour - most of you RUN faster than that!). And I think this might be the inspiration for her to start exercising a bit - she was talking about going for a ride to/from dinner and I might even be able to get her excited about a triathlon (when we were in Cape Cod she was so excited to swim every day).

It could be a really expensive hobby, but it's a healthy one (as opposed to our other new no-friends hobby, the Wii) so whatever. It's going to be the impetus for me to get a bladder for the Camelbak my landlord left behind (yay!) and now Meg is looking up bike trips in Vietnam for our planned tour of Southeast Asia next year.

In that spirit - does anyone commute to work on their bike? Are the big spatulas that come with the bike going to cut it as pedals? Should I graduate immediately to those toe cage things, or wait until I'm hardcore enough to justify clipins?

(Pics coming as soon as my bike actually arrives at the shop...on Tuesday!)