A quick hello and thought on my bike

[Velocivixen]

Hi and welcome. Have you thought specifically about what you might want in a different bike? Are there bike shops where you could test ride some bikes?

[Titania]

Reading here has definitely helped me understand more about what I should be looking for. I *think* I want a road bike with relatively relaxed geometry (definitely not a hard-core racing bike). I know I absolutely do not want a bike with straight handlebars again, so drops or Trekking would work.

There are a number of bike shops near me. I found a very large shop in NH, that I want to check out. They have a huge inventory and have a nice dedicated area set up for doing fittings.

I guess part of my questions are how do I know what I don't know? Will I just really need to go ride a few bikes to see what I do/don't like?

[Velocivixen]

I did a lot of research first and read a book by Selene Yeager. Chapter 2 has a questionnaire which is meant to help you figure out what you want. I hilly recommend the book, although I didn't read the part about nutrition or training.
I, like you, wanted a road bike but not a racing geometry bike, nor did I want. Touring specific geometry-something in between. I knew I wanted steel. I bought the Surly Cross Check 2011 for just over $1,000. I really like it!
I suggest trying to imagine how you will be riding in a year from now and aim for that.

[Titania]

Thanks for the recommendation on the book...just purchased a copy from Amazon.

In the future, I'd like to get off the bike paths complete and into doing more road riding. We have a re-purposed Army base nearby that I'm using for riding now. It's road-riding (hills, cars, etc) but is relatively quiet. I plan on riding here for the next year or so until I get my comfort up on riding roads. The roads around where I live are in horrible shape for the most part with no shoulder. I got hit by a car when I was on my bike as a kid, and that fear still sits in the back of my brain gnawing at me. But I want to work to get over that. I'd like to get to the point where I'm riding 20-30 miles at a swing.

Thanks for the great advise...much appreciated.

[Velocivixen]

I did an online training (free) by the American League of Cyclists called "Online Bicycle Education Traffic Skills 101" which was 4 chapters. The website says it takes 4 hours and it took me about 1 hour to do all 4 chapters. I am a fairly astute urban/street rider, however I learned a lot! I highly recommend it. Here's the link if you're ever interested:
http://www.bikeed.org/

[tytbody]

Thanks for the link Velo. I want to learn stuff about riding. And trekking bars? so what do they do for you?

and for all who have those bars that look like horns, what do they do? I mean the straight ahead horns, not ram horns.

[Titania]

Thanks for the link Velo. I want to learn stuff about riding. And trekking bars? so what do they do for you?

and for all who have those bars that look like horns, what do they do? I mean the straight ahead horns, not ram horns.

Tyt, you're a local!

The Trekking bars look almost like a figure 8. The huge advantage they have over straight bars is that they give you lots of available hand positions, key when you need to get off those hand nerve bundles. They're extremely uncommon in the US, for some reason, but very common in Europe, especially for commuter bikes.

I got my Trekking bars from Harris Cyclery here in MA. Sheldon has a nice writeup on various types of bars and their uses, including the Trekking.

http://sheldonbrown.com/deakins/handlebars.html