I GOT IT!

Oh my gosh, I'm so excited!  I got my new bike and it's the bomb!  I spent 2ish hours at Folsom Bike with Erin Gorrell (she was fabulous) on Saturday and test road several bikes and I kept going back to this one!

It is an Avail by Giant.  Click here to see the specs (and no, I didn't pay the price that's listed on this web page - I have connections - THANK YOU Kelly).

Erin showing me about shifting gears before my first ride (photo thanks to Justice)

So after making the decision to go with this bike, now I had to make other decisions.  Oh my goodness, this is like buying a car.  You don't just walk in a say I want that one and walk out.  Oh no, there's test riding, there's shoe fittings, there's pedal choosing, survival kits, gloves, shirts, and then your fitted on your bike.  WOW!

So why do I need to choose pedals and shoes?  I had every intention of walking out there with regular old fashioned pedals.  But no, peer pressure set in.  I wanted to be like one of the cool kids, you know.  Every serious roadie uses clip-on pedals (they're actually called clipless, not sure why, when you're clipping in how can that be clipless, but whatever) and therefore wears clipless shoes.  Hello, doesn't everybody know that?  LOL - RIIIIGGGGHHHHTTTT!

That's Justice's head

But before you pick your pedal, you gotta pick your shoe.  HHHMMMMM.  Well I decide to go with a mountain biking type shoe so that when and if I ever get brave enough to put clipless pedals on my MTB, then I won't have to buy new shoes.  So that is how I ended up with an MTB pedal for all you roadies out there wondering why I put a pic of that paricular pedal.  BTW the shoes aren't cute!

Ok, so I got my shoes and my pedals and they go to work on my bike, meanwhile, I have too much free time and I'm told I get 25% off anything I buy today.  Crap, thanks!  Ok, since I can't find my riding gloves ANYWHERE I'll get some gloves.  HHHMMM I've been wanting one of those insulated bottles, throw one of those in the basket.  Oh you're offering me the wireless electronic spedometer/tracker thingy.  OK!  Yeah, not a good thing to have free time and 25% off.  But, it all went under the 1 year free financing, so I figured, WTH!

So now it's time for the fitting.  That would have been painless, except I haven't been on a bike for a while, I'm not wearing my awesome tushy padded bike shorts, and I test road bikes on small, hard seats.  So by the time it came to fitting time, sitting up on the bike hurt. LOL

They made sure the seat was in the right position and the handlebars correctly aligned for my body.  WOW a bike fitted to me.  What an awesome concept.

Now I'm ready to leave - yikes, a little sticker shock after going a little crazy, but I WILL pay it all off before it starts acruing interest!!!

Now it's time to go home with my new bike.  However, I didn't get to go home and take it for a spin because my baby girl, Skyla, wanted to take me out for a pedicure, so that's what we did.  It was nice, we got the expensive one, HOT ROCK Pedicure.  WOW  That was nice.

Skyla soaking her feet

Today I got to go for a spin on my new bike.  I met Kelly at 8a and managed to get my feet clipped into the pedals and off we went.  We were on the bike trail the whole way.  We went around Lake Natomas and then up to Beals Point.  Once we got to Beals we stopped.  Ok here comes the tricky part.  Kelly says unclip before we come to a stop.  Ok, twist and lift right foot - done, now twist and lift left foot - done.  Ok how did I end up on the ground??  Well apparently I forgot to lift the right foot after twisting and must have twisted it back into the clip and down I went.  OUCH.  I laughed, but I'm scraped up and I'm feeling sore this afternoon.  Oh well, I now have my first battle wound from road biking.  Hopefully, it's my last.

Today was fun and I can't wait to get back out there for another ride.  As soon as I learn the safest route to work, I'll be biking in.

Stay healthy!