help with which bike to buy

[fidlfreek]

Sueg -
Hi I am selling my 08 Dama Bianchi if you are looking for one for a short person (I am 5'2) See the For Sale section if you're interested. I chose the Bianchi because for the price it gave me the best components. Shimano 105 components felt to me to be much much better that the lesser quality Shimano Tiagra or Sora components. I don't know what components the Giant comes with, but thats just something to consider. BTW, I'm getting rid of her only because my apartment is small and I bought another bike not because she's not a great ride. Her triple was just overkill for me living in flat Texas!

Here's what I think about the gearing issues. Having ridden both a triple and a double I can say that I wish my first bike had been the 34/50 gearing. On a compact (thats what a 34/50 is called) after a while you can always change out your cassette (the small gears in the back) as sundial was talking about for something that gives you the ability to go slower or faster (see these custom cassette options http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/k7.html). Remember, you can even have different cassettes for different times of year (or terrain) but this gets slightly more complicated...but you could have an 11-28 (nice and wide - so fast and slow options) and then a 13-32 (gives you even more slow gears!). It is a simple thing for your LBS to swap out cassettes. And they are only around $100 depending on material, grade of components etc.