She's here!

[ace]

Bikerz- yes, please! You need to meet her in person this weekend

So I picked her up today. Serotta failed to paint "Coeur D'Acier" (heart of steel) on the frame as they were 'sposed to, so she's going back to them for a few days while I'm in Italy for repainting. In the interim I get to play with her.

First reactions, based on two miles of riding (and remembering I haven't really ridden a road bike for 30 years, and have hand, knee, foot and shoulder problems...yikes): she feels very stable. The only place I was feeling some pain were my hands- I'm instinctively going into this weird back-of-the-hand-turned-toward-the-outside position, with hands at the ends of the bars (you know, right where they curve to the hoods- does that part have a name?). Lbs raised the bars up a bit, so that may help. They said there's a bunch of stuff we can do if it continues to hurt.

Lbs was supposed to put 25 tires on her, but they were out, so temporarily put 23's on her, and she feels fine. I keep forgetting where the brakes are (thank you, lbs, for putting brake extenders on w/o asking me!). The easy/low gear feels really easy (which was our objective), but I think the high gears aren't high enough. Lbs says they can change this if it continues to be my experience.

The bike feels so LIGHT. She weighs 22 lbs, compared to the 32 of my hybrid.

For those of you who remember how self-conscious I was about buying myself an expensive custom bike---while Ian at the lbs was going over the bill with me, a guy came in, and was ogling my bike, saying how beautiful she is. Then he asked if it was mine, and I say yeah. Then he said did you just get it? And I said, "yes, I'm picking it up today." And he said "That's my dream bike. So, did you just get a big divorce settlement or something?"

Is that weird or what? I mean, was it inconceivable to this guy that I might actual have my own money? Anyway, I think he was just a weirdo.

See next post in thread for photos...I was having trouble posting the images before.