Look what I found at the pawn shop!

[Laurentide]

Leveling out the saddle will help a lot, I think, until I can afford to replace it. But it's the first thing on the list after a helmet. It's kind of beat up anyway, and my last bike had a pretty rigid saddle I liked a lot. I've been doing a lot of searching and reading on the forum! And there's a good (Trek) LBS here and also an outlet/second hand store. ~I love to buy gearrrr!~

I'm lucky in that I'm 6 feet with long arms and legs, so I'm easier to fit than most women. I know I want to switch out the twist shifters for triggers, and I might change the bar to a drop or touring bar. Gonna measure my sitbones then take a trip to the LBS and tool around looking at stuff and getting ideas.

This is my list of things to do:

helmet (ABSOLUTELY MUST DO THIS FIRST even though its the least fun part)
batteries in the lights/new lights
can the saddle be tilted? otherwise new saddle
probably need new tires too actually
cage+waterbottle x2
replace twist grip shifters with trigger shifters/shifer+brake combo things
handlebar tape
gloves
rear rack + pack

And this week I'm going to do a complete wash and lube. Because it's gross.

(he's a Duck Toller actually )

[Laurentide]

You need both bar tape and grips? My Jones H Loop bars have both, but that is quite unusual. The Jones bars are funky.

What speed is the bike? 8 speed?

I'm 5'7", and yes, it's easy to find bikes that fit, I have long arms and legs, and can ride both men's and women's, typically. I wear either large or extra large women's cycling gloves, maybe a medium in mens (I have some extra size large women's, I used to like them tighter than now. Shrug). Wear size 10.5 street shoes, but in cycling shoes something like 43.5 or 44, clipping in requires toe room. I may have some extra stuff lying around that would fit you. My feet and hands are really large for my height. (My sister is 6 feet tall, and wears women's size 12 shoes, minimum). I'm the runt. The Bontrager SPD shoes I have that don't work for me are size 43, though, and a bit too small. So probably would be for you, too, unless you have very small feet and hands for your height.

My Trek 7200 is a tad on the large size. I can make it work by adjusting the adjustable stem so the bars raise up and towards the rider. I think it's a size 19 or 21, can't remember. Anyway. That's why I was asking what part of the country you are in. (I'm not far from Savannah, GA. About 50 miles). An inexpensive bike isn't worth shipping. Costs too much.

What kind of touring bars were you thinking? Drop bars would require a lot more parts and money.

Either grips or tape. I really hate grips, and much prefer tape. But I have to replace the twist shifters with triggers before it's worth it to tape them, otherwise there's not enough bar to bother taping. The bike is 3x7, I don't know why bikepedia says 3x8. I looked in my LBS today, replacing the shifters will be around $55, depending if I replace just the shifters or go to a brake/shifter combo. I think I'm going to try installing them myself, I'm pretty handy and I've got a maintenance book. But it will be a month or two before I do that, and replacing the saddle is a higher priority.

I'm in Wisconsin, near Appleton.

I was looking at something like this for touring bars: http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product...33_-1___204718