I just bought my very first road bike!

[Over50Newbie]

Thanks everyone for your kind words. There is a good chance that the rain is going to let up by tomorrow afternoon and I am "hot to trot" to go on my first real ride. YAHOO!!

Pascale, here is the geometry for the Terry Classic. I have a 28" standover height and I got the 16" Terry Classic. It is the 2005 model. They didn't make this model for 2006 and my LBS said that they are going to continue it again next year, but it will have drop handlebars, instead of straight ones like mine. Also, the brakes fit me perfectly. I know what you mean about not being able to reach the brakes. That happened to me on many of the bikes that I test rode. The same issue with the shifters. Good luck!

P.S. Go to a different bike shop. I went to 5 different shops and only one of them didn't have the right equipment to measure me (I didn't buy the bike from them!). Three of them used something called the "fit system" and one actually used a beautiful new computer system that they said cost them $5000. They all came out with the same measurements, so I know that they were accurate.

I now know all types of things about my body that I didn't know before, such as my standover height (which is the height of my pubic bone from the floor), both of my arm lengths, the width between my shoulders, and the height of my chest bone in relationship to the floor. They put all of this information into a computer, and it told me exactly what bike would fit me the best. And the Terry bikes kept coming out over and over as one of the "best fits".

Also, don't let them talk you into a 47 cm bike. I fit best on a 43 cm and can just make it into a 44 cm.