I test-rode some bikes yesterday - yay! I went to two stores. The first place had Giant and Trek. I rode a Giant OC1 and a Trek Pilot 2.1. The Giant was too small, the Trek was nice. Then I went to another store, and I have to admit the Trek is now a blur in my mind. This is because I had more fun at the second store.

This place has Bianchi, Cannondale, Scott (etc). I'm partial to Bianchi since I rode one for many years, so let's get that right out there. I first rode a Scott. It had an aluminum frame, lovely bike - all black with dark gray accents. Anyway, the first one was too big, I was too stretched out. I'm happy that I could tell it was too big - I was afraid it would all be too foreign and I'd have to do this several times before I could get to square one. Then I got on a Bianchi Veloce. That was quite nice. But whoa - what's this button by the thumb! Different shift levers, so I mostly rode along and played with the shifting.

Then I rode the Scott with a smaller size frame. That felt OK, and it had the familiar Shimano system. I took a longer ride on this one. In between these rides I chatted more with the salesperson and quizzed him on stuff. Then I got on that Bianchi again. Oh, that felt better! This was the moment when I smiled and thought, "OK, I could like this...".

So the Bianchi is the best so far. But there are a couple of issues. I did start feeling pain between the shoulder blades in back. I told this to "salesguy", and he said the handlebars are probably too wide, and the stem might be too long. He described the sizing they'd do using a trainer, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this stuff can be worked out.

This bike comes with a compact double, 34-50, with a 13-29 cassette. I recently set everyone off on a discussion of "double vs. triple". Thanks to your helpful advice, I do think I understand the concepts. I plugged numbers into the gear calculator, and it's clear that I would lose a bit on either end of the range. The question I have, especially for Bianchi fans and owners, is: can I get a triple chainring on this bike? I've done some searches and there are references to the Veloce with a triple. I'm going back on Saturday, so any advice would be much appreciated.