by Here I thought I had my search narrowed down to two beauties, my friend’s Guru she’s selling and a shiny new Felt S32.
Testing Bikes
Well, after my quality workout last Wednesday, I realized that the Guru was still a bike I was wrangling; at a bit over 50cm, it’s just a little big. However, my body felt great on it. I went back to ride the Felt after some fit tweaking and–yikes!–had significant shoulder discomfort. The bike handles like a dream and I feel extremely confident on it. So I’m at the point of wondering…do I broaden the search or do I trust that the fit issues will get worked out? (If you have a thought on this, let me hear it please.)
The Other Stuff
Last week was hectic, with a combo of the bike hunt, house preparation (we’re getting the new house ready for leasing), and general life. Middle child had her University of Texas music school audtions Saturday which she ROCKED!!! And my dog began really acting up.
It’s not one thing; it’s all the things combined.
Numbers (I owe last week’s workout numbers, too):
Week 6: IM Training Totals
swim 1:30
bike 2:55
run 3:20
——————–
total 7:45
Week 6: IM Training Totals
swim 2:05
bike 4:10
run 3:05
——————
total 9:20
Thank goodness for fun and refreshing work outs. It took an hour of bitching, moaning, and whining on the ride Saturday to get everything out of my system. Thank God for Cathy!
The blind leading the blind …
I\’m not a biker, I hadn\’t biked for 2 decades before getting a tri-bike about 11 months ago. So take the following with whatever grains of salt are necessary given that disclaimer.
My one overriding concern was getting a bike that I might almost immediately want to upgrade from … that either makes the initial purchase disappointing to live with, or leads to the next purchase which means you bought two bikes to get the one you really wanted … (if you see what I mean?)
My purchasing discussion went like this: A of J & A: \”is this bike comfortable?\” Me: \”my sofa is comfortable, this bike is not, the saddle is sharp and pointy, stabbing me in the bits, and I\’m leaning forward bending over onto my lunch and laying on my elbows in The Plank position, tell me what should be comfortable about that … \”. We agreed to disagree on \”comfortable\”, and I figured I\’d go with what they said was a correct fit, and figured that my muscles would figure it out later. Then, 6 or 8 months later, I got it re-fitted/tweaked as a power-fit.
However, I didn\’t have significant shoulder discomfort at any point of my buying process, to me that really doesn\’t sound quite right if they\’ve fit it to you adequately for a trial ride. My fit was, in fact, weird and strange feeling, but I don\’t think that \”significant discomfort\” was ever involved. Your other option — felt great on it but I was wrangling [it] sounds like it\’ll be a struggle.
I do recall lots of grabbing my arms, shoulders, neck and prodding of my back to see if anything was tight/taught/not-relaxed as a means to see whether I was aero\’ed nicely using skeletal or musculature structure …
Are you going to ride after June? 🙂 Are the two bikes significant purchase $\’s apart, or comparable? (no need to answer either of those questions in public, but to yourself, and maybe those answers play into you decision).
Is it a very large hassle to try a third bike? Or a fourth?
Ah, that probably didn\’t help any, should I discard what I typed or hit the Post button? delete? Post?
Re: The blind leading the blind …
I\’m glad you didn\’t hit the \”delete\” button.
Yeah, for me the deal breaker was pain. I understand feeling strange and (to use Coeurd\’Claire\’s word) \”wonky\” but several hours of tweaking and still having pain means it aint right.
I have discarded both the Felt and the friend\’s Guru and renewed the search. I had a very positive experience yesterday; I got a new fit from a different shop and did some test riding on some other things based on those measurements. Voila! My body felt the difference immediately and it helped me ascertain what wasn\’t right about the Felt (also, I found a review on line that said that model in the 48cm size is a problematic fit for short people with short torsos–unfortunately, this is me). So I took the Felt back to the shop, told my buds there that it wasn\’t right for me, and we\’ll look at some other things there based on that. And I have an appointment to look at a few more things at the place where I got the new fit.
I actually feel like all this is progress, even though I am no closer to having a new bike.
Re: The blind leading the blind …
Yes but I have a new bike 🙂 And I was the one that wasn\’t going to buy a new bike…hahahahaha. I was lucky for once and things fell into place. Soon you will have a new bike and you will still be whipping my arse on rides.
PS – nothing should hurt, that\’s just wrong.