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Well when everyone is flying using jet-packs, I bet my bikes will be worth a fortune.

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The store manager at Revolution also recommended Beach Drive. I will definitely check it out this weekend. However, if it connects to Rock Creek, I might just go to Rock Creek and start the trail from that point.

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Update: I gave up and just stored them in a storage unit. Maybe someone will bu them in another 10-years or so.

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@Dirt 14755 wrote:

5) I love arriving at work invigorated and lively instead of angry and upset.

Dude! Tell that to my CFO! He is always in such a bad mood in the mornings!

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I guess the best thing is to try out the various pedals. I bought SPDs, and since these are my first pedals, I of course feel uncomfortable. I can’t be sure if this comfort level is what is to expect from road pedals, or if it is actually the pedal itself. I can only find that out by now trying out the egg-beaters. So on to trial and error.

This past weekend I went to Seneca Regional Park to ride, in my sweatpants, I will never do that again. For one, the legs of my pants were getting caught in the chain. They turned black from the grease. As if that wasn’t dangerous enough, when I would try to get off my bike at stop signs or just to practice to clip on and off, my crotch would get caught on the sea, and a few times I came very close to a face-plant. Which made me go immediately to purchase my Pearl Izumi tights from performance, they had a clearance sale, and there was one Medium left; $104.99. My Jcrew pants aren’t even that expensive (minus the suit pants). Hope they are worth it.

The other thing I learned from my ride and some youtube videos, is that the left and right shifters, shift different gears, and I don’t want to be on opposite ends on both shifters. I was creating this horrible noise when shifting, and after watching the youtube video I realized I was shifting wrong. A few people were staring at me

I am still slightly scared of going out to the open road, because most of the times I can’t clip in. Some times the pedals is inverted, but that really isn’t the problem. I just can’t place my cleat on the pedal at the correct position. I think that will correct itself with experience, and just having a feel for where the clip on the pedal is. Once I get that down I’ll attempt a road. Until then I’ll keep riding in the parks.

I have a lot more to learn, but determined to conquer this cycling thing! Thanks for all the good advice.

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I bought the Shimana SPD SL pedals and Shimano SH R300 shoes. I checked out the eggbeater and the manager told me that the beaters don’t have as much surface space as the SPD, so it’s less force, and thus slower…etc. Gave me a bunch of other factoids, most of it went over my head, so I just trusted his experience.

Picking up my bike tomorrow afternoon in Arlington, taking off from work a few hours early, and should be ready to ride! Pretty excited about putting on all my stuff and riding.

By the way, does anyone know where I can find some tights (pants not shorts) with butt padding? I could only find shorts, and I feel kind of uncomfortable riding around in speedo shorts. I don’t want to wear baggy pants, so I am going to opt out for tights, but all the pants don’t have butt pads.

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LOVE Schaeffer’s farm. Excellent trails. Has an option of 5-6 different difficulty and distance. Not very crowded at all. Just awesome.

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Yeah I don’t normally sell stuff on CL or any where else. I just don’t have the time with work and all. I’ll just put it up and first person to offer, I’ll sell it. Garage is getting cramped any ways.

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Thanks. I am not looking to squeeze every penny out of them. I’ll put them both up for $200-$300.

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Well I just came back from visiting two LBSs.

I found a Felt Z6, everything Carbon except for the Handle bar, so Frame, Fork and seatpost were Carbon. Then the next LBS had a Cavalo Calabrese, which is a bike made by Nashbar which is the same as Fuji I think, same frame the salesperson told me, was Carbon everything (Frame, Fork, Seatpost and Bar). Both of these bikes are for 1200. The Felt was a 2010 and the Cavalo was a 2011. They struck me as more bike for my buck than the others. The Cavalo had SRAM components and the Felt has 105s. So I guess it’s a toss.

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I have read a lot of good things about Bonzai and Freshbikes. I live in Rockville, and they are just so far. Thank you for all of the advice, I didn’t know “fit” was so important. I just figured all 56 cm would fit like 56ers. I’ll go to the shops this weekend and see what they suggest and then go from there.

Also what’s the difference between a Tri bike and a Road bike, besides the handle bars. Why are Tri bikes cheaper?

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Don’t laugh, but I have never rode a Road bike, only Mountain Bikes, as that is what I have been doing for the past 2-years. As mentioned before this was he reason I was trying to avoid buying a brand new Road bike, but haven’t had any luck finding a good starter. Again, just looking at this two, because I like the “look”. I don’t know much about the technical(s) of a bike. Therefore I can’t check out a bike online and read the components and understand anything. Furthermore if I ordered online it would require assembly, and I am sure I could not assemble a bike.

I’d like to just know which bike in your opinion is the most bike for my buck. Either from the two I listed, or any other products in your mind. Thanks.

P.S. as far as the frame, Steel isn’t for me. I would like to stick to Full carbon or Alu/Carbon forks if the deal is good. Wouldn’t go below Carbon and not spending 10k on Titanium.

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