The Triing Lizard

Monday, July 17, 2006

Bike Dreaming!

So this weekend Jeff had me try out one of the Orbeas I've been dreaming about getting a road bike. I'm glad he didn't have me try one of the $4100 Litespeeds!! The one I rode retailed for $2100.

It's not that I don't like my current bike, it's just that I've had problems with it from Day 1. Plus I very rarely do the kind of riding that my tri bike is designed for (flat, fast, smooth roads, not very many turns, and not very much shifting). It doesn't have ANY give in it which makes it very uncomfortable and I return home from long rides not able to feel my fingertips. The frame does not have any flex in it which on bumpy roads causes me some major headaches, literally, my brain feels like it is being shaken. And the bike has NEVER shifted correctly. Currently I have to hold the shift lever in place with my hand to keep it in the middle ring. I can only use the small ring and the large ring on my crank. This is the compromise because the other problems I was having is that I couldn't get into my small ring AT ALL (this makes climbing really tough), and the problem before that was that I was dropping my chain every time I shifted. This makes my bike rides somewhat unpleasant.

The problem is that I can't in good conscience sell my tri bike knowing that it doesn't shift properly. Turns out that my bike is not designed for a triple crank (seat tube angle is too large and the frame is too small) so my options are to either switch to road levers or to change out the crank yet again (I went from a Sora triple to an Ultegra before we realized the problem with the sizing). Ugh!

So we go to Jeff's store and he wants me to try out the Orbea so I can try out to see how I like the road brake lever style shifters. Jeff is such a good salesman, he knew I would love that bike. And that I would find out how much more comfortable road bikes are. This bike was so much more comfortable (and lighter) than my tri bike! I didn't realize what I was missing!!! I LOVE the shifters, they are awesome. So the goal is to switch out the shifters and maybe sell the bike to someone who will ride the bike the way it was meant to be ridden.

So I've been looking at the Orbeas and I absolutely fell in love with this one, this blue is absolutely GORGEOUS! I see this bike in my future!!!


Plus I am buying Jeff a Felt F65 bike for his b-day (well, helping to buy the bike). Wouldn't they match nicely?


2 Comments:

  • ooh, liz, that is one sweet bike! (of course, it certainly can't even compare to my fab-o bike from Target...haha choke!) But really, it's beautiful and I'm sure it rides like a dream!! Go for it!

    By Blogger Claudia , at 2:42 PM  

  • Lizzy,
    That does look like a sweet bike. Wow, for $2100 it better be, huh? Wait till you see the post I just did about our $50 espresso tampers, explaining why using them is such a morsel of kinesthetic candy, the gist of it is the same as the gist of your post about the $2100 bike! As soon as you update the What's New section on our website, I'll post the tamper post, and you'll laugh. We definitely come from the same stock; we both appreciate the finer points of well designed piece of equipment!

    PS Do you want to enable titles on your blog? Veronica and I just figured out how to do it... it's in the template section... let me know.

    By Blogger Sarah Wilson Belzile, at 3:16 AM  

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