Originally Posted by
featuretile
I bought a 2008 Vita Sport by Specialized. It is equivalent to a 2009 Vita Elite. They call it a flat bar road bike. It has a Dolce seat. It is a WSD small which is 51cm (I'm 5'3"). From the moment I got it, it was so comfortable. No complaints in the seat area, shoulders or hands. It weighs 22 lbs. (unlike my first comfort hybrid Globe which weighed 35 lbs.) The various models are between $500-$880. It goes faster and is easy to ride. I bought a bigger rear cassette for hills, and some ergonomic bar ends for longer rides.
I wonder when I read this forum and am around bike club people, why they consider this bike a 'cute little hybrid'. I read about the Sora components as if they are cheap and not good, but it seems to work fine. I don't think I would ever use drop handlebars, so why would I need them? Is this some sort of status thing to pay lots of money for a road bike, or are they really that much better? I also read about all the body pains and complaints with these more aggressive styled bikes, and I don't have any. So, perhaps if I rode one I would notice a difference (or not). Right now this suits me just fine and I think you might like to test one yourself.
Well a true road bike with drops is all about performance. Obviously everyone has different goals on their bike.
Your bike works wonderful for you and how you use it.
It wouldn't work for me. A road bike works for me. I'm a triathlete, and I have used my road bike for everything from a sprint all the way up to an Ironman.
I also do local group rides of 30 miles where we keep a 18-20 mph average (not the rolling speed- but the overall average at the end of the ride- we are typically rolling at speeds of 20-26 mph).
You mention Sorta components. I started on Tiagra components with my first roadie, a Trek 1000... and they sucked.
I now have all Ultegra. Night and day difference.
The Tiagra components needed to CONSTANTLY be adjusted. In fact, I rode around on that stupid bike for a good 3 months where I couldn't even get into the big chain ring. I also had to have the bike shop adjust the derailer once a week.
My Ultegra components... no adjustments. In fact, I've only had 2 tune up's since January 2007. One of those was the "new bike" tune up.
I'm sorry if someone made you feel bad about the bike you ride. There are some people in this sport who are very serious about it. They aren't in it to "have fun"... they are all about speed, racing, etc. and tend to lose sight of the fact that not everyone is into cycling for those reasons.
Anyways... Trust me, we don't get roadies for the status symbol of owning one. They are machines that have a purpose.
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather, to skid in broadside thoroughly used-up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: WOW WHAT A RIDE!!!!"