After giving up for a few months I started looking again at the bike stores and came to the conclusion that a “hybrid” was going to be more in my price range. From what I can tell the only thing that was really different between a road bike and a hybrid were the handlebars and the shifters. Again, the shifters added a lot to the overall price so this made sense. After starting my search again, this time with my sights on a hybrid style, I found myself in Golden Spoke Cycle Shop. They had one bike that was in my price range but felt a bit small; but I was willing to roll with it since I wasn’t having much luck anywhere else. Then the guy at the shop pulls out this black Raleigh and says “this is more your size right here”. He was so right. I adjusted the seat and hopped on and it I could feel the difference. The problem was however, that even though it was was on sale it was still way more than I wanted to spend. The guy goes behind the counter, types a few things into his calculator and comes back with $500 out the door. That was over $200 off the original price but still a little more than I wanted to pay. Then I took it for a spin around the parking lot; and that was that. Fifteen minutes later it’s in the back of my truck and I’m on my way home.

I was able to take it for it’s first official ride this past weekend and man it felt good; but damn am I out of shape. I’m really looking forward to building my endurance and strength up though because I really want to take it downtown and perhaps even ride it to work someday. Until then, I’ll continue to expand the radius I ride and I’ll keep you posted on my progress. I hope to one day be able to ride with the great Sean Bonner; the one who really sparked my interest in road bikes and inspires me everyday with shit like this.