Quote Originally Posted by Crankin View Post
Kubla,

I didn't know you were really looking for a Jamis, so I didn't address that in my PM.
You should try Quad Cycles in Arlington. I bought my Jamis Coda Femme there and my DH bought a Coda Sport. It is a smaller shop, though not teeny, and they were super nice and had lots of Jamis bikes.
Just a thought.
We are where you are now, too. The Jamises are great, but very heavy, for me and the flat bars are killing me, even on the shorter errand rides I use it for (though I have ridden 50 miles on it). We are now looking at lighter weight touring bikes, too, for just the reasons you specified. I can't put anything on my carbon road bike, because it's so light and small, so I really want a dropped bar bike, with fatter tires that I can put a rack/pannier on. he fact that I am short and live on a huge hill makes it hard to find exactly what I want, but we are working on it.

Good luck!
Crankin, sorry for the delayed update. (Work and other things seem to get in the way of my computer time.) I went back to Harris Cyclery on Saturday, took the 2009 Surly Cross-Check out for a much longer ride, then asked if the price was negotiable. (We are well into 2010 and they are still asking list price.)

I did like the bike's ride -but the 'beef gravy brown' color was not exciting enough to inspire me to pay full price for a leftover.

Unfortunately, he would only reduce the price by $55-not enough to forego my back-up plan of ordering the '10 Aurora that I'd coveted in the first place. He seemed surprised, but it is doubtful the Aurora will disappoint me; I really enjoy my Coda Sport. There was apparently some question that he'd be able to get one-even though it's only April-but I was prepared to grab the Cross-Check if it fell through.

The condensed version of the story (admittedly, I'm not good at this...) is that it's now on order and might even be here by the end of the week. As much as I liked the Masi Speciale CX, I got bad vibes from the other shop. Without mentioning the name of the other shop, I told Mr. Harris that their customer service is superior and greatly appreciated. He was tickled to hear that. They wouldn't even write up a purchase order until I've ridden the Aurora and am satisfied with it.