OY! Mothers!! (Yes this IS cycling related)...

[Trek420]

I wound up buying a bike that, well, I guess it fit well enough, but it weighed a ton and it was a women's frame bike (not WSD, but the kind you can ride in a skirt and that has inefficient transfer of energi from back wheel to front) Trek just about had a fit when she saw what I planned to ride on at the Cinderella century.

We were at Moms and DoW says "go look at the bike, it's in the garage. "

I think my jaw dropped. "How the &^% are we going to do this with this bike "

One LBS she took it to to get it prepped for the ride said "I give her an hour." So she took it to her favorite LBS, had slicks put on it, and off I went.

I tried to rent an alternate bike from Cyclepath in Hayward. They did not have one in your size. The manager there gave you "10 miles, or an hour, whichever comes first" on the Giant Sedona womens frame.

My LBS said the only thing we can do is put slicks on.

Both were pleased you survived 42 miles of the brutal-epic Cinderella Century. I'm proud too.

Then, when I felt I could afford to trade it in, I got a much better bike. So do not despair. Get your Mom involved with TE. We'll back you both up with plenty of encouragement.

Duck's right, encourage your Mom and bring her here. DoW's bike was not a box store bike, just wrong for a Century.

The bad thing about box store bikes is people give up on cycling because they are just so so... the good thing is if they get that to get started and go on to get a better bike.