Neither here nor there

I was having one of my "I should join that club - it could be fun" moments today when I realised I had made an error in judgment.

The club in question was Rockwheelers, the local mountain bike club. I thought I might be able to learn a thing or two and go along to some of the events - where there would be people to notice if I break my neck or something.

Then, the thought popped into my head: "Your 'mountain bike' wouldn't be up for those sorts of things, because it's not a 'real' mountain bike. It is, as previously mentioned, a 'comfort mountain bike'."

Then I thought - "but I should still join a cycling club anyway" as I had also been eyeing off the road bike club and their velodrome. Ever since I noticed the track racing at the Olympics was actually not boring (I get easily bored by races) I've been wanting to try out a velodrome.

"Ah," my obnoxious sense of reality pointed out, "but you don't have a road bike worth mentioning either. What you have is a 'cross' bike designed for riding around town."

It's true! It's true! While the old Merida managed to survive the Julia Creek Dirt and Dust Triathlon, it didn't exactly shine. Granted, my coming dead last probably had a lot to do with my level of fitness (and the fact that I can't swim in a straight line to save myself), but the bike wasn't exactly my secret weapon.

It turns out that, while I am now the proud owner of two bikes - both of which I ride every week, I don't really have a mountain bike and I don't really have a road bike. I'm not even sure I have a touring bike (although the guy at my bike shop knew I wanted something for touring when I asked for his recommendation, so I'm going to assume the Sedona will do the job).

I definitely have at least one commuting bike, which is probably just as well, considering I do a fair bit of commuting by bike these days. It doesn't help with my occasional whim to join a bike club and ride around a velodrome, though.

Curse my desire to do a little bit of everything! Why must I want to a) ride to work, b) ride around the country, c) ride cross country and d) ride around a track when I cannot afford to collect a commuter, a tourer, a mountain bike, a track bike and a road bike?

Why can't they invent one bike that will do everything?

Yet, even as I make that plaintive cry, I know that any bike which was generic enough to do both cross-country and track riding would probably be terrible at both. Especially if it was affordable.

*sigh*

How "good" is a Giant Sedona as a mountain bike, does anyone know? Could it survive some actual cross-country trails without stranding me in the middle of no-where?