by Yesterday, I got a call that the bike that was being built for me was ready to try out.
Testing Out Tri Bikes
This afternoon after swim clinic, I was able to go in, get fit on it, and take it out for a short spin. It felt great! There were a couple of little odds and ends that weren’t quite right (easily fixable things), but overall it felt very comfortable. I’ve not had aerobars and bar-end shifters before (I am coming from a very basic road bike), so that was a bit different but it wasn’t as bad or scarey-new as I thought it would be. The bike is super pretty, too, which is not something I thought mattered very much to me…but it seems to matter some.
So I have another bike to test ride tomorrow. I rode it this morning on the trainer (I meant to ride it outside but that darn front blew in and I didn’t want to be on an unfamiliar bike in the rain) and my legs felt cramped, like I didn’t have full extension or something. I will take it back in tomorrow to see if they can change something on the fit and then I’ll give it a whirl on the road. It has nicer components than the bike I rode this afternoon, so I am very curious how the shifting will feel on the road. I did not fall in love with it on the trainer…but it’s hard to love anything when you feel like a gerbil on an exercise wheel.
Both these bikes are tri bikes. I still want to try out my friend’s tri bike as well. I think that will give me a lot of feedback for my price range.
I’ll have looked at and ridden a Felt, Cervelo, and Guru. Any one of them would be a very nice bike to have–I’ll just need to figure out which has the best fix and the most for my bucks.
My goal is to have a new bike before the riding picks up in March, which is right around the corner.
