BleeckerSt_Girl, as far as pics goes, my boyfriend and I are going to do a 20-ish mile ride tomorrow morning on some streets and a bike path by a river, so I'll try to remember to snap a few shots of it in some scenic situations tomorrow. He suggested we go hiking tomorrow since both of his bikes currently have the wheels off, and his preferred bike has a thrown spoke, and I told him I would not stand for buying a bike and then spending the following day hiking, so he could either suck it up or spend the day alone !

wackyjacky, your mods look really nice! The brown saddle especially seems to complement the blue. The handlebars are a little bit of a concern for me too--my old mtb had totally straight across bars and when I was just cruising down the street I would often wind up kind of setting my hands on top of the bars in a more neutral position... not the safest habit, I know. So we'll see how this goes. I may also wind up swapping out the bars in the future. So far my only "mods" have been a bottle cage and a kick-stand (my boyfriend always jokes about not having a kickstand being the ultimate performance enhancement, but I'll take that expense for not knocking over my bike every time I try to open the gate to my apartment complex. ).

And an aside about storage...I live in grad student apartments on campus, and the rules are kind of stringent--including no bikes in the apartments. I figured it'd be safe enough locked to our racks, since they're inside the gated complex that you normally need to swipe an ID and punch in a PIN to get into. Then, I was wandering around this afternoon and saw some rooms labeled "BIKE" and asked at the office... they're locked rooms with a bike rack inside (could probably fit 8 bikes) that any resident can use, but not everyone thinks to ask about since there are so many racks outside, and the first one I checked only had 3 bikes in it! Guess where I put my new baby immediately! Plus it'll be protected from the HOT Arizona sun, and the torrential downpours during monsoon season. I'm so pleased that I can keep her inside... I'm all about sharing, but I hope not TOO many other people figure out the bike room thing, because I'd sure like to keep that spot for the year.