I’ve been thinking and talking about getting a road bike for a while. It was one of the reasons that I had my wrist operated on, so I could hold drop down handlebars again. So last weekend we went out and did some test rides – I did some test rides, I should say. Chuck just watched, pooh-poohing the whole idea of a new bike. We didn’t buy anything, as there was much research to do first. Bike technology has changed BIG time since I was 13 and got my first 10-speed. The last road bike I had was about five years ago, and my wrist was such a problem that I gave up on long rides, sold the road bike and got a cheapo hybrid that I’ve been casually riding since, so I had no real basis for comparison. Gears, for instance: 27-speed bikes are the norm for road bikes now. Whoa! And everyone kept saying that I had to get clipless pedals – the kind you have to step and click into, then frantically atttempt to wriggle your foot out of before you tip over at stop signs. I’ve always been a bit shy of these, being such a spaz. But who am I to fight progress? Evolve or die, I always say.

Anyway, yesterday we went out more seriously, looking to buy. There’s a fab new bike shop that just opened in Huntington Beach called Surf City Cyclery, and we ended up there. They sell mostly Specialized, but also Felt and Bianchi. I was pretty sold on the Specialized bikes, as they have several Women Specific Design bikes. You wouldn’t think it would make such a difference, but they make the frame a little shorter in all the right places, and it’s really comfortable! I also went with an all-carbon frame, as it was lighter and smoother on the road. The fitting of me on the bike took about an hour with me pedaling like a maniac on a trainer while they eyed me from different angles, raised and lowered the seat, and did other fine-tuning to make the bike fit me just so.

Meanwhile, Mister-I-Don’t-Need-A-Bike was off looking – you guessed it – at bikes. I think it was dawning on him that if I got a road bike he would be officially unable to keep up with me on his old Canondale mountain bike. So after my bike was all fitted and paid for, we started looking for a bike for Chuck. He ended up getting the boy version of my girl bike, had to go through the same rigmarole as me. We ended up spending several hours at the bike shop. The good news: both bikes were on sale! The bad news: the sale wasn’t that great.

So today dawned clear and pretty and we hit the road on our new bikes. We rode about 30 miles, and survived to tell the tale. Our bad ass friends Tim and Kyra came down and rode with us (okay, I’ll be honest – Tim joined us after riding down to Seal Beach from City of Hope hospital along the San Gabriel flood channel bike path, a 40-mile ride, and Kyra came down after teaching a one hour spinning class, which makes us big fat wusses for complaining about our sore butts after 30 measly miles) Our butts were sore by the end, and my wrist was feeling the pain of muscles that hadn’t been used in a long time, but all in all it was a fabulous day. And I only tipped over once in my clipless pedals, managing to gracefully collapse onto the bike frame thus not scraping any part of me!

I forgot to take a photo of us in all our glorious riding togs, but there will be many more rides in the future, I can tell. Lance Armstrong, eat your heart out!