The problem with choices

There are times when it's easy. Like crunchy vs. creamy. One tastes like peanut butter should and one sticks to the roof of your mouth and causes serious mastication issues.

Then there are times when it's much more difficult. Now that I have two fully functional bikes, I'm not sure what to do. Do I ride the road bike, the sleek narrow-tired wonder that's zipped through roads for me for the last 12 years? Or do I choose the month-new shiny white mountain bike with it's thick tires and bouncy front suspension?

It doesn't matter to anyone else. There are some routes where this choice would be easy, a long flat road surrounded by wheat fields- road bike; a rocky trail with a creek to cross and some mud puddles- mountain bike. I'm neither in the woods nor the wheat fields. I'm looking at a mostly road route with some non-paved trail for two large (3 mile) stretches. I know the road bike can hack it, because my dark blue birthday present from long ago has done it before.

The debate in my head is mostly one of comfort. Since I'll be carrying a backpack on my ride the big gears of my road bike might let me power through the road sections and get me to my destination quicker. Yet, the two non-paved trail sections were a major contributing factor in my desire to have a mountain bike at all. How nice it will feel to bounce through them without feeling as if my bike and my back might simultaneously break.

I'm really just delaying my ride because I'm afraid that I'll freeze.

Update: Choosy moms (and me) choose mountain.