The happy news is that I bought a bike over the weekend. It's a lovely celeste green Bianchi Veloce. The less than happy news is that I'm having a heck of a time getting used to the clipless pedals.

It seems to take a lot of force to snap the cleat out. I think I understand the foot action to use, to swing the heel out, but while practicing I can't get it to go every time. I'm practicing while standing over the bike. Is this normal, that it seems very tight to budge? They apparently set it up as loose as they could. I was having trouble forcing the cleat out with the original pedals, so we upgraded to the Shimano ultegra while I was at the store.

I finally realized I was getting too freaked out about this, and just went out with my gym shoes on. I'm really not used to this lightweight bike, or the shifting, so one new thing at a time.

I learned a lot during the sizing / fitting exercise at the store. They used a laser light gizmo to line things up. Pretty impressive.