done lurking, time to post

[mimitabby]

Zencentury,
in the truest Italian tradition, females are girls and males are boys.
If you ever are in with a group of women ANY age in Italy, you will notice
that they do NOT refer to themselves as women "Donne" or "Femmine" but
as girls "ragazze" and I was just carrying over that Italian tradition.
Men are the same way; they call each other "ragazzi"

If it is really disturbing you, I will change "girls" to "gals"

MimiTabby

[Zen]

It just seems diminutive to me. When I hear that I'm reminded of the old west and "saloon gals"
Now where's my Trek women's team?

[HillSlugger]

Now where's my Trek women's team?

Start it up!

[kabewyou]

Hi Mimi: I learned that assumptions were made based upon my height as to what size frame I needed by many bike shops. I am 5'6" with longish legs and I am most comfortable and fit best on many brand's 51cm. frame. I kept getting steered towards 53cm and 54 cm. Once I actually sat on the bikes and they could see the complete fit, then the sizing changed. I also like having the option of not riding as if I am stretched to the point of no return. I agree, get yourself professionally fitted, riding is supposed to be fun, not painful.

[rachelroo]

Sorry mimitabby, I ment at the ride- figuring out who other TE members are. For example, at scrapbooking events all of the people who are on the scrapbooking message board I hang out on way too often wear green ribbons so we can identify each other. Good times, I decided to go with the Trek 5000wsd, way more than I wanted to spend but the 2100's were unavailable.

[mimitabby]

oooooooh! we're more subtle than that. We plan beforehand and look for each other.

[mimi]

I don't mind being called a girl. I am one. I don't allow anyone or anything to make me "diminutive".

LBTC: great idea about the handlebar width. I'll look into that. It'll be worth the money to make these changes if I can find comfort.

[Jiffer]

Hi mimi. I'm a newbie, too. Hubs got me into riding tandem with him last Fall and now I'm awaiting my new Cannondale single to come in. Woo Hoo! Looking forward to doing my first century. Maybe I'll end up doing one around the same time as you. At first I thought I'd better wait until next season to think about a century and just focus on half centuries for now. But hubs and I have done 50 or just under 50 miles a few times now on the tandem, so I can see the reality of doing 100 (though I'm not fooling myself into thinking it will be easy!). Maybe I'll do it on the tandem first with him, then on my own. We'll see. I just can't wait to start riding single ... any day now I hope! (There's some hold up with my frame coming in and it's driving me crazy!)

I highly recommend you have your bike fitted professionally. My husband had a bike for a couple of years, rode it a lot, finally had it professionally fitted and was amazed at the difference. We get every new bike fitted now. (The tandem, his newest bike and pretty soon my new bike.) It's just not worth it to not pay the extra hundred bucks or so.

As for your pain, it's normal to have "some" pain issues when getting used to riding. So, make sure your bike is the right size and fit and then give it a little time to see if your pain issues go away. In my opinion, if you realize your bike isn't the right size for you, don't let your investment in it keep you from getting the right bike. If you have added nice components to it, take them off and sell the frame. Buy the right frame and put your components on that. Just a thought. I'm getting a new frame and putting my husband's components on it from his last really great bike, before he bought his current really greater bike!