Okay --

First test ride -- I went to the LBS I like the best and walked in and said I was ready to test ride some road bikes, that I had a heavy hybrid and now that I was riding more I really wanted/needed a bike that would be better suited, plus my current bike doesn't fit me.

The guy was professional, listened to me, and was (probably) trying to size me up (needs-wise, not otherwise, fresh!).

So I first asked, "Do you have any steel bikes?"

Well, yes, but he doesn't recommend them, it's the cheapest road bike they carry, $500, which is around $300 less than their other entry-level bikes, but....

"Well, a lot of people love steel bikes."

He said, "Not this steel. This is just, STEEL." He said that people who were telling me how much they loved steel bikes were riding much more expensive bikes, yada yada ...

Well, I just wanted to "move right along" so I said, okay, show me what you've got.

This is where the "sizing up" took place. He pulled out a Specialized Allez to show me, said it was entry-level, showed me a couple of things about it, then took me to a different row to show me another kind of bike --

http://bikemart.com/itemdetails.cfm?...gId=39&id=1317

Well, first off, I love the burnt orange color (and it's also a bike I'd seen on the internet and bookmarked to check out) but when he said it was a fitness bike with a less extreme ... you know, whatever you say about standing on your head to ride a road bike -- this one is less extreme so I guess you just, oh, stand on your shoulders? ( can't recall his exact description) I said, "You know, I may end up needing that, but I'd like to try real road bikes first and see what they feel like and move backwards if I need to."

So we took the Allez to a big parking lot and he adjusted the seat, etc. and showed me carefully how to get on and off (I'm used to a step-through) and how to slip my feet into the cage on the pedal (told me I need road shoes instead of my mt. bike shoes and that if I got this bike I'd need to go clipless, yikes!) and I realize that stuff is debatable, but I'm not worried about details like that right now so that's fine, whatever.

Bottom line -- I could get used to everything about that bike but man, it bothered my shoulders. I tend to carry tension in my shoulders, anyway, and sometimes end up with headaches. If I'd ridden that bike very long I probably would have had a whopper of a headache. I told him that, and he said from watching me that I wasn't stretched to far or bunched too tight, that he thought it was the fact that it was my first time on a road bike and I was tense, and I also needed to not "slump" but work on my posture.

At this point, I'd done a few laps and figure 8s and stopped for him to give me more advice/adjustments a couple of times (and almost fell off because I forgot my foot was in a cage, naturally, but he was there to stop me from falling over) and said I'd like to come back when I had more time and ride more bikes (then proceeded to spend almost another hour inside the store, still looking/talking to him, wouldn't you know? LOL).

He showed me the Robaix and said it might be a better choice for me because the .... ooops, thing the stem sticks in? ... is longer/taller, whatever which would be more comfortable for me. He showed me the Ruby. He showed me some Treks.

I said, "I guess I need to work on upper body strength," and he said that would help but it was more about core strength.

He taught me how to say "Bianchi" and "Celeste" and a few other things I wasn't sure of (or was wrong on). He gave me the Trek and Specialized catalogs, showed me a few things in them, and after I asked about a Bianchi that was there, he showed me that catalog and told me about their steel bikes. He also said they could order from Gunnar and Surleigh (how do you spell that?) if I really wanted steel (which was nice, considering we hadn't mentioned steel again). Maybe he realized I might be open t o spending enough money to get a good steel bike?

He's only there a couple of days a week but I told him I'd come back when he's there. He said, "Anybody can help you," only not that brusque -- and I said, "Everybody has a different spin on everything, and I know nothing, and I end up confused; I need some consistency!"

He said in that case, if I wanted to come some time when he wasn't ordinarily there, I could call him and he'd come and meet me there.

Very nice guy, maybe retired, maybe not. (The fact that he could be there on different days?) Hmm. Wonder if he works at more than one location and that's the reason? Hmmm.

Anyway, I've test-ridden my first road bike.

Major concern -- is shoulder/neck issue something I will get over when I'm used to the way a road bike feels? Am I too tense? Is it that despite what he "saw," the bike was just wrong? (If that's it, riding other bikes should make that more obvious.) Am I going to need to go with a more upright bike?

I do not know. Only the Shadow knows.

To be continued....