New to biking-in need of advice!

[rose17]

Dex, is the Reno a women's or men's design? I would definately try something I haven't already been shown! Were there other brands that also seemed to fit you more comfortably right away? I haven't actually gotten to ride any of them outside yet-it snowed quite a bit last week so they just put them on a trainer in the shop. Hopefully this week the weather will be improved-I'm getting anxious to make a purchase and start riding!
It's nice to know I'm not the only woman with short legs and a long torso!!!

[Thorn]

rose--where in Wisconsin are you located? If you're spending that much on a bike, the salesperson should do some preliminary work. Ask them. Note: there is one LBS (a large-ish local chain) in the Milwaukee that you have to get the right salesperson. They have some top notch fitters and <sigh>some sales people that would like to first demonstrate to you the "wonders of the vanity mirror"</sigh>.

[stacie13]

Hey rose - I just picked up my first road bike, a Giant OCR3. I LOVE IT! And the bike shop spent almost an hour fitting me to the bike, it is definitely worth finding a shop who knows what they're doing! I've been out on a few rides so far and it's the most comfortable I've EVER been on a bike.

Plus, it goes reallllly fast!

Regardless of your body shape/size, they should be able to custom fit the bike to your specifications. There is so much to choose from though! Doing your homework does pay off though. Good luck!

[dex]

Dex, is the Reno a women's or men's design? I would definately try something I haven't already been shown! Were there other brands that also seemed to fit you more comfortably right away?

My Reno is of the "regular" (i.e. not women's) variety. The long torso/reach thing meant that for me, women's specific designs were all wrong. (That actually bummed me out a little, because I went into my bike shopping thinking that's what I was going to get.) You mentioned that you looked at the Tourmalet. The frame geometry is the same on the Reno, it's just the component set (and paint color) that's different.

Are you mostly being put on women's bikes? If so, I would definitely try some others, as well.

As for other bikes that were fairly comfortable for me, one was the Bianchi Volpe (which I may still get if I decide I want to tour with friends or commute by bike sometime in the future) and the other was a Raleigh Cadent 3.0.

One of the things I loved about the person at the bike shop I ended up buying from was that we didn't even talk about price until we had figured out roughly what size bike I was going to need. We talked about what kind of riding I wanted to do, what kind of personality/temperment I have, and he took a few measurements. After that, he started pulling bikes down, putting me on them, making little adjustments and sent me out the door to ride. It was only after figuring out what I needed in a bike that he started walking me through the price breakdowns and we focused in on a couple of models in my price range. In fact, I think every bike he put me on to work out the size thing was the bottom entry level model in all of their lines, because he wanted to initially focus on fit before we got into bike specifics.