I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike

Hey man, Jaws was never my scene, and I don't like Star Wars...


So all a part of GSD, though it seems counter-intuitive to my main goal of paying off my credit card completely, is to buy myself a bicycle. I had one when I was a kid, but I have no clue what happened to it and it was not very good. So I want my big purchase for 2009 (as I don't plan on flying as many places this year and the weddings seem manageable) to be a bike so I can bike around Salem/Beverly.

There are many reasons why I want a bike. First off, it's a pain in the ass to drive certain places in Salem, since there are weird one-way streets or parking, and sometimes I just want to bike around town instead of walking or driving to a walking place. This will also save me gas, since I could pretty much only use my car on weekends for trips to home, the various people I know in the Boston/Cambridge/Somerville area, and food shopping. It also helps my carbon footprint. And this will help me with my goal to be a healthier person.

I will not, however, be driving this to work. Because I work 14 miles away, and while it'd save me a lot of hassle with cars and buses... biking 28 miles a day right now seems a bit lofty. Maybe down the road when it's nice out I can bike to work, but right now, I think I'd die.

There are two bike shops in the area (Beverly and Salem) that I plan on shopping at for said bike. I don't want anything fancy. Just a few speeds, good for the roads, easy to take care of... oh, and in a neat color. But that last one is very low on the list, and bikes look so cool these days, I'm pretty sure anything would be neat to me.

So, any local bloggers who read this, what do you think? Is this a good goal? Am I forgetting any bike shops in the area? Are there good bike trails I could take?