oh-sweet-pea

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April 19, 2006 - 1:15 pm

Well, there she is, my new bike! I'm definitely excited about having such a powerful workhorse, but it is definitely taking some time to get used to. Going up hills is a breeze because even though it's a steel frame, it's WAY lighter than my old bike and the skinnier tires are extremely good climbers. But getting used to the drop handlebars is more difficult than I thought. I guess on my old bike I was used to riding the brakes quite often cuz I am a bit of a chicken rider and with drops it's pretty tough to ride the brakes with so many hand positions available. Plus, it has bar end shifters which are weird...I have to position myself low to change gears and it just makes me more unstable and shakey in traffic. Last night I went on a long bike ride along the bike routes just to test myself out on it and I didn't feel anymore confident than before. Cornelius said I can't let the fear get to me and that I should try riding with only one hand just so I can get used to a quicker reaction time. I dunno! I guess I thought I was a much better rider than this is all this adjusting is getting me down. I know that just riding and riding will get me over my fears and I shouldn't let the fear get to me, but it is discouraging.

On a good note, when I brought my bike to Dream Cycles on the Drive yesterday, the mechanic couldn't help but exclaim what a sweet bike I had. He repeated it over and over! He told me that I could sell my bike for $1400 no problem...and considering I only paid $600 (gulp!) for it, is an amazing deal. They repaired the funky gears and gave it a tune-up and now I've just got to ride it out. I guess I also have got to get a better lock!

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