Noob to cycling, need advice, Annandale to Tysons Corner

[hozn]

In general, I think the idea of test riding a bunch of bikes for long rides sounds smart — and fun. That said, I would say that a lot of what people are experiencing when they test ride a bike are the things that you tend to (or are trivial to) change out anyway based on personal taste. E.g. saddle, stem, seatpost (setback/nosetback), handelbar configuration (how flat is transition from bar to shifters). So definitely test ride bikes, but pay more attention to things like how quick the steering is or whether you like the size of Shimano vs. Sram shifters rather than minute differences in your position on the bike / how low the bars are, how comfortable the saddle is, how much road vibration you feel (easily fixed by changing tires which wear out anyway), etc. (This is obviously much easier said than done.) I test rode a few bikes when I was buying my first mountain bike and I borrowed my first road bike for a couple weeks before deciding to buy it, but since then I’ve always bought bikes without doing any extensive test riding (and most of them bought as frames without ever having ridden them at all) and I’ve never been disappointed (or surprised) by any of my purchases. Once you know what works, bike fit just boils down to some lengths and angles.

[Steve O]

Just to add one more potential shop to your list, I have bought all my bikes over the last decade or so from the Bike Club in Falls Church. They sell both used and new and carry some bikes that you won’t necessarily find at other places.

That said, it’s better to be a regular there than a newbie; they tend to treat the people they know better than people they don’t. It’s pretty quirky. On the good side, since they know me, I have never had any repair require more than a couple hours tops–they just drop the other bikes and do mine on the spot.

It seems upon my last couple of visits that they are working on improving their customer service, so it may be worth a visit.

FWIW – I ride a steel-frame Fuji road bike with SKS fenders and rack, and I commute with a pannier rather than a backpack. I have two front wheels: one with a Schmidt generator hub I call my “winter wheel” for riding when it’s dark a lot, and a normal one for the rest of the time. I use this bike for everything because I am too cheap to buy more bikes. (Actually, untrue. I also own a 1961 Western Flyer 3-speed for short, around town trips.)

Hope to see you at a coffee club, 3rd Thursday happy hour or other event.

[n18]

Besides the excellent advice already, here is a new path option if you want to stick to Gallows RD. During Gallows bridge over I-495 renovation last year, they built a sidewalk on the north side of the bridge, and it extends up to a traffic signal with pedestrian crosswalk just after the hospital emergency entrance. After that, there is only a sidewalk on the west side, and it gets wider near RT 50. Bike lanes on Gallows start at Prescott Dr intersection and end at Prosperity AVE, then resume one block after I-66 bridge.

However, there are few problems with this new path:

1. There is a 100 Ft segment just to the east of the bridge that doesn’t have a sidewalk, but it’s passable by bike. It includes 80 Ft grassy area, and 20 Ft gravel. If you use Google Street View, it’s the area east of the Yield sign. West of that sign is a new sidewalk that is not shown in Google Street View.
2. North of the hospital is a two block residential area with a service road that is supposed to be in one direction only(southbound), but there is a sidewalk to the west of it.

I have used this path only once, about a month ago, so I may not remember the full details. Using the south side of the bridge and trying to stay on Gallows is a bad idea that I have done maybe 10 times, because it requires going to Luttrell RD, then crossing Woodburn RD, which doesn’t have a traffic light at that intersection, and there are many cars trying to do right turns from multiple areas.

Here is a picture that illustrates this new path:

[DaveS]

@JimF22003 91329 wrote:

Here’s the route I take from Annandale to Tysons, including the extension to Spring Hill Road I sometimes take when I go to the Honda dealership:

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/5466270

I see a few regulars on this route from time to time, notably Sir Dirt.

A couple of annotations, because some of this is only rideable on a bike, not on a car:

1) About 8.5, cut through the back of the office building instead of staying on Gallows where the bike lane peters out
2) About 8.8, go under the parking structure beside the Olive Garden to get to the frontage road along Rt 7.

This is actually where I work, but sometimes I take the rest of the route to Spring Hill

3) 9.4 crossing Chain Bridge Road. Take the cross walk on the West side of International Drive onto Pinnacle. This is closed to cars, but is perfect for bikes, and keeps you off Int’l

This suggested route is excellent. I’m going to try the part from Spring Hill to Gallows tonight. I work at Spring Hill and Greensboro also but live in McLean. As a variation to JimF’s post, when I’m coming in on Gallows side, sometimes I’ll stay on Boone all the way ’til it turns left on the service road up to Verizon store, take the right across 123 at light and turn right on service road around the Koons dealership, you can then hop on the wide sidewalk all the way down route 7, crossing at light (as pedestrian if you want) at Westpark or Spring Hill but continuing on sidewalk to Springhill. I haven’t done this since metro opened so watch for pedestrians but up until now the sidewalk is sparsely occupied, wide, and downhill in the morning! I’ll do this occasionally when I really don’t feel like dealing with the cars.

[KelOnWheels]

@KayakCyndi 91276 wrote:

That is because they know the longer you ride the less likely you are to actually want to give it back! Jan has been known to say things like “oh, I’ll just order that in your size …. you can see if you like it …. if you don’t like it I’ll sell it to someone else.” And of course that never happens. Don’t ask me how I know …

The words “Just take it home for a week or two, see if you like it” may have been used when the Space Horse arrived at Bikenetic Then I almost crashed it on the first test ride

[Geoff]

@hozn 91333 wrote:

In general, I think the idea of test riding a bunch of bikes for long rides sounds smart — and fun. That said, I would say that a lot of what people are experiencing when they test ride a bike are the things that you tend to (or are trivial to) change out anyway based on personal taste. E.g. saddle, stem, seatpost (setback/nosetback), handelbar configuration (how flat is transition from bar to shifters). So definitely test ride bikes, but pay more attention to things like how quick the steering is or whether you like the size of Shimano vs. Sram shifters rather than minute differences in your position on the bike / how low the bars are, how comfortable the saddle is, how much road vibration you feel (easily fixed by changing tires which wear out anyway), etc. (This is obviously much easier said than done.) I test rode a few bikes when I was buying my first mountain bike and I borrowed my first road bike for a couple weeks before deciding to buy it, but since then I’ve always bought bikes without doing any extensive test riding (and most of them bought as frames without ever having ridden them at all) and I’ve never been disappointed (or surprised) by any of my purchases. Once you know what works, bike fit just boils down to some lengths and angles.

I’m glad to see someone discuss what to look for when trying bikes. The advice to try lots of them sounds like common sense, so it is hard to criticize. On the other hand, there is no one right bike for a given person, or so many of us would not have multiple bikes. As hozn says, you can tweak a lot of things and change the bike’s feel. Also, your body will get used to a given bike.

I used to play classical guitar (and hope to again some day; different story, maybe different forum!) and, when buying a guitar, people were advised to try lots of them. Thing is, novice players were also advised to let their instructor choose their guitar for them, because the novice did not yet have the skill to bring out the best in a guitar and maybe didn’t even have the ear to recognize differences. I think something like that applies to bikes also. A novice rider isn’t alive to the differences that will matter in six months. Many years ago I rode coast to coast on a Peugeot PX-10, loaded with all my gear. The PX-10 was a nice bike in its time, but not a good choice for touring. But I had it fixed in my mind that it was what I wanted and I probably would have chosen it even if I had tried lots of other bikes. Someone should have slapped me.

[laughter95]

Thanks so much to everyone for so many helpful responses, insight, and route recommendations!

I finished my first day of having real test drives of road bikes, ever. Pete at Bikenetics was very helpful. He set me up with several:
1. A 54″ Kona Jake w/Tiagra
2. 49″ Kona Jake w/Tiagra
3. 54″ Kona Jake the Snake w/Tiagra
4. 51″ Jamis Ventura w/105(?)
5. 53″ Bianchi Vertigo w/105

All of the above were 2014 models, except for item 5, the Bianchi. Realized that the best fit for me is 50″ or 51″.

As expected, whatever lighter, more racing-oriented, was more fun, responsive, lively, and preferred. The Kona Jake + Carbon Fork (=Jake the Snake) was more responsive than the Kona Jake. The Jamis Ventura was appealing because it was about half the cost ($1150) vs. the Bianchi Vertigo, an all-carbon frame, which was $1900. I didn’t get to properly assess the Bianchi since it wasn’t the best size and my sit bones were quite sore at that point.

I thanked Pete and Mike and left with really positive impressions of the store. I hoped that the bike that I would eventually buy would be from this shop.

I decided to check out FreshBikes in Merrifield. It was less than half an hour from their closing, so Alex had a 2014 Cannondale Supersix Evo 6 in size 50″ ready for me right as I walked in. I hopped on, and upon the first pedal, I felt good. It was truly an exciting ride. Felt really responsive, the sizing was quite comfortable, and I enjoyed its easy handling. It costs $1,900. A shop in Delaware (Wooden Wheels) offers the same for $1,650, no tax. I’m hoping that FreshBikes could offer an OTD price match of $1,650 so I can get LBS post-purchase support. And I’m also considering whether it’s worth the $200 upgrade to purchase the Supersix Evo 5 instead since it won 2014 Bike of the Year by Cycling Plus. A comparison of the models w/the components can be found here.

I appreciate that the Supersix Evo can be expanded from commuting to racing. I usually get obsessed with things and like to pursue it deeply (e.g. hiking will be culminating in a future PCT thru-hike).

And as for componentry, I don’t think I care about it as much. I can feel that the 105 is smoother than the Tiagra. I found myself fiddling with the shifters more on the Tiagra than the 105. I think I’ll be fine with the 105. Haven’t tried the Ultegra.

Questions:
1. Could anyone comment on a comparison of the Bianchi Vertigo with the Cannondale Supersix Evo 5/6?
2. Would I be alright purchasing from FreshBikes? Bikenetics seemed to be a lot more inviting, personal, trustworthy. Yelpers report that FreshBikes pricing is expensive. And the FreshBikes Arlington location feedback is abysmal. Bikenetic has a full five stars, no negative remarks anywhere.

I’m also thinking of whether I should just take the more economical option, the Jamis, which I thought worked out quite alright. And this whole carbon vs aluminum… well I guess I’m really the only person that can answer that question. But any additional insight will always be carefully considered.

Thanks again. I do hope to make it to one of these bikearlington meetups once I have my own bike.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@laughter95 91825 wrote:

Questions:
1. Could anyone comment on a comparison of the Bianchi Vertigo with the Cannondale Supersix Evo 5/6?
2. Would I be alright purchasing from FreshBikes? Bikenetics seemed to be a lot more inviting, personal, trustworthy. Yelpers report that FreshBikes pricing is expensive. And the FreshBikes Arlington location feedback is abysmal. Bikenetic has a full five stars, no negative remarks anywhere.

1. I haven’t ridden the Bianchi, but I have ridden a few Supersixes and have always been impressed. Personally, I’d rule out the Bianchi on aesthetics alone (Dickie just had a heart attack)…I don’t care for their graphics and I really dislike curved top tubes, but that’s just me.

2. Bikenetic won’t disappoint. I haven’t spent a ton of time/money with them, but my experiences were positive and I know everyone loves them.

Freshbikes gets a lot of hate, in part because they have a reputation as an “ELITE” shop. I’ve always found the people there to be friendly and helpful though, and they seem to be more technically competent than most other shops. I bought my Cervelo there and had a great experience. Never had a bad experience with them in my many, many times in there, but to a degree I can understand why some may not care for the atmosphere. Also, if you need any components that aren’t super modern or mainstream road/mtb, you’ll probably have to go somewhere else. For example, they don’t sell any type of fixed gear/single speed components, and most of their clothing is high end, performance oriented.

[laughter95]

@TwoWheelsDC 91827 wrote:

1. I haven’t ridden the Bianchi, but I have ridden a few Supersixes and have always been impressed. Personally, I’d rule out the Bianchi on aesthetics alone (Dickie just had a heart attack)…I don’t care for their graphics and I really dislike curved top tubes, but that’s just me.

I totally agree w/you on the curved top tubes…

I unexpectedly discovered that the look ends up being actually somewhat important. Cervelo’s red/black motif makes you look fast just while standing… 😎

Thanks for the tip on FreshBikes.

[KLizotte]

Too bad Bikenetics doesn’t carry Cannondale.

I bought my Cannondale from Freshbikes in Arlington. They always did right by me the first year when I was bringing it in for adjustments and a full check up after I had a bad crash. I like Clovis, the chief fitter, and Curtis Pippins, the service manager; I never really got to know the others too well. After the first year was up I started taking my bike to Spokes (various locations) for all of my maintenance needs. The folks at Spokes seem less intimidating to me (I’m a lass) and the shops are less snotty than FreshBikes which definitely plays to the moneyed crowd.

In the end, what matters is a bike that fits well. Both Bikenetics, FreshBikes, and Spokes have excellent mechanics so you won’t go wrong. It’s always a great feeling if you find the right bike at a store you love but it doesn’t always work out that way. I’ve given lots of money to Spokes over the past few years in parts and maintenance so it doesn’t much matter where I bought the bike in the end. If Bikenetics were closer to where I live, I’d try them out too.

[vvill]

@laughter95 91828 wrote:

I unexpectedly discovered that the look ends up being actually somewhat important. Cervelo’s red/black motif makes you look fast just while standing… 😎

The look of the bike (and yourself on the bike) is definitely important in that if it makes you feel good and want to ride, it’s a good thing. Not really that different to wearing clothes you like to be seen in and being “styled”, in general.

Bikenetic is my favourite LBS, but FreshBikes do have a highly regarded bike fit service in the form of Clovis, and I think if you buy a new bike, a basic fit is included? You might want to check. On the other hand, Bikenetic offer free lifetime basic service on a bike you buy there which may be more valuable depending on your mechanical skills. I haven’t had issues with staff buying parts/components from FreshBikes but it’s rare because I really have to want exactly what they have to spend that much money on something there. Bikenetic carry (and/or will order) a wider range of practical components/parts than FreshBikes, but if you are into the highest level pro/racing bike stuff, FreshBikes can’t be beat on having the latest-and-greatest stuff (that is of course also very expensive). It’s no coincidence they carry Cannondale, Specialized, Assos, Cervelo, etc. Bikenetic will happily help you to buy/service/provide advice on whatever you want to do on two wheels (or anything similar), whereas FreshBikes really does cater more specifically to those with shaved legs and racing licenses.

[hozn]

Looking at this list, the Supersix Evo is fairly different geometry-wise from, e.g., the Jamis Ventura. It’s not surprising that the Supersix felt a lot faster, it is setup more aggressive — shorter head tube, shorter chain stays, has a steeper head-tube angle. And probably very different stack and reach numbers; I didn’t calculate it for the Jamis. If you want to look at something similar from Jamis, maybe consider the Xenith? That is within a few mm of the stack/reach of the Supersix and should feel even snappier — has an even steeper HTA, equally short chainstays, more fork rake. IMO it looks better too. (http://www.myjamis.com/SSP%20Applications/JamisBikes/MyJamis/consumer/bike.html?year=2014&model=Xenith%20Comp&cat_grp=road_1) It is more expensive; the comp model linked there is 105, though, so probably around the same pricepoint as the Supersix 5 (?). Might want to talk to Bikinetic about what the OTD pricing might look like for a Xenith if you’re gravitating toward a race geometry frame.

Neither the Supersix or the Xenith seem particularly practical as a commuter. E.g. no rack/fender mounts and I’m guessing you’d max out at 25c or maybe-28c-on-narrow-rims tires. But they both sound like fun bikes and there’s nothing wrong with driving a sports car to work!

Personally, if I were buying a bike from a shop, I’d pay more for the renowned customer service of Bikenetic. I think the folks at Freshbikes (I have only been to Arlington location) are very competent, but I have certainly had some condescending experiences talking to their mechanics, so there’s something to that reputation they’ve earned for being snobs/elitist.

[KelOnWheels]

@KLizotte 91829 wrote:

If Bikenetics were closer to where I live, I’d try them out too.

I live less than a mile from Spokes. But Bikenetic is my LBS.

[laughter95]

@hozn 91902 wrote:

Looking at this list, the Supersix Evo is fairly different geometry-wise from, e.g., the Jamis Ventura. It’s not surprising that the Supersix felt a lot faster, it is setup more aggressive — shorter head tube, longer chain stays, has a steeper head-tube angle. And probably very different stack and reach numbers; I didn’t calculate it for the Jamis. If you want to look at something similar from Jamis, maybe consider the Xenith? That is within a few mm of the stack/reach of the Supersix and should feel even snappier — has an even steeper HTA, equally short chainstays, more fork rake. IMO it looks better too. (http://www.myjamis.com/SSP%20Applications/JamisBikes/MyJamis/consumer/bike.html?year=2014&model=Xenith%20Comp&cat_grp=road_1) It is more expensive; the comp model linked there is 105, though, so probably around the same pricepoint as the Supersix 5 (?). Might want to talk to Bikinetic about what the OTD pricing might look like for a Xenith if you’re gravitating toward a race geometry frame.

Neither the Supersix or the Xenith seem particularly practical as a commuter. E.g. no rack/fender mounts and I’m guessing you’d max out at 25c or maybe-28c-on-narrow-rims tires. But they both sound like fun bikes and there’s nothing wrong with driving a sports car to work!

Personally, if I were buying a bike from a shop, I’d pay more for the renowned customer service of Bikenetic. I think the folks at Freshbikes (I have only been to Arlington location) are very competent, but I have certainly had some condescending experiences talking to their mechanics, so there’s something to that reputation they’ve earned for being snobs/elitist.

Questions:What is HTA? Fork rake? (something to do w/the angle of the fork, as per google search…) I’ll take a look at the Xenith.

and RE impracticality as a commuter: would a Thule Pack ‘n Pedalwork?

FreshBikes knocked 15% off the SS Evo 6 and gave me the impression that they were doing me a huge favor, or that I was ripping them off. I walked out to reconsider my options. Then I checked w/the area’s C-dale dealers, and another would discount the same 15%. We’re in the last month of the 2014 models, and it’s the last month of summer, after all.

Bike sales is interesting. Shops hardly profit from bikes, mostly from service and gear, it appears. And a buyer can save 30-50% when buying a bike that is just a year old. Of course, buyer beware. But that first year depreciation is steep.

[n18]

@laughter95 91945 wrote:

What is HTA?

Head Tube Angle.

[Author]

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