Thinking about a new bike

[Adventure Girl]

I love the ride on Fluffy, but as he's decked out right now, he's a bit heavy.

Anybody remember Veronica screaming, "It's not heavy... It is NOT heavy" when were were in the parking lot before the Top Hat!!?? We almost couldn't pick him up!! I wish I could TIVO real life and play it back!

[Veronica]

Anybody remember Veronica screaming, "It's not heavy... It is NOT heavy" when were were in the parking lot before the Top Hat!!?? We almost couldn't pick him up!! I wish I could TIVO real life and play it back!

Well, I never thought he was heavy until I started picking up your bikes. I mean when you're usually carrying around a bunch of books, papers to grade, lunch, keys and assorted other junk in a big honking bag and you take all that off, he seems light. Besides I'm an Amazon. Thom calls me his burly wife. Who do you think did most of the heavy lifting this weekend? Well, really only half. But still...

So now I'm toying with idea of just changing out wheels and pedals. I've been riding 27s. I've got 23s set to go on now. Once I'm not commuting I don't need my doublesided pedals. Trouble is - when you buy stuff piecemeal like that, it's more expensive. A good set of wheels is nearly $1,000! That's like 1/4 of a new uber light bike! That just doesn't sit well my Yankee frugality which occasionaly rears its ugly head. And of course I'm not going to change my saddle. Anything I can sit on for 10 hours is too important to my personal well being to nit pick over a few ounces.

And then of course there's the pounds I could lose...

V.

[SadieKate]

V, you can get some pretty nice lightweight custom wheels (like Mavic/Dura Ace) for well under $500 bucks and still have $500 leftover for a really nice town bike. Yeah, these wheels won't look like the factory-built 2 spoke jobbers but those would look funny on Fluffy anyway.

Bubba had the wheels for his Kelly built by the guy (Gorgeous George or something like that) who builds for www.speedgoat.com for an excellent price and he got DT Swiss Hugi hubs. They were less than $400 and built really well.

Since I can ride late Tuesday afternoons, you can always take Amtrak up here, ride with me, stay overnight and then ride home to Antioch in the morning. That would take care of you! You can add to your Diablo-at-a-distance photo collection.

[tatormc]

Also take a look at Giant's. Last weekend I got a Giant TCR Composite 2 and really love it. I had a beginner Giant before that and getting on the TCR is just great. It's light and handles really well. I did change the wheels to Ksyrium Elite as my hubby says these are better.