To riding my bike midday past the three piece suits... to fruits... to no absolutes!

It only took all day, but I am now the proud owner of a Roma commuter bike by Scattante. Mom and Brad and Peter and I all jumped in the Jeep to make the trip to Atlanta- I don't really know a lot about bikes so I really wanted my Brad's opinion. Peter knows a ton about roadbiking (but I think he's a little Scattante crazy) and mom just wanted to come along. Anyhoo- we left fairly early, and got there around 11:00. We were finally helped by an employee around 12:00, but by that point we had looked at almost all zillion bikes they had, and decided collectively that the Scattante Roma was indeed the best bike for the purpose of commuting around town, and also it was a good deal at the discounted price of $549. (Brad and Peter actually bought it for me! birthday present). I was a little proud for having picked out the best bike without even really knowing it, and anyone who thinks $549 is insanely expensive hasn't bought a new roadbike- they get crazy expensive- although it definitely wasn't the cheapest there- cheaper ones weigh a ton and have crappy parts on them that will have to be replaced.

Moving right along with my story about the day long trip to the bike store... at twelve we finally got a guy to hear us say we wanted to buy it... only problem was they didn't have one up on the shelve that would fit me. It took the schizophrenic ADHD ridden clerk over half an hour to check to see if there was one in the back... which there was which took HOURS for them to build... so we went to The Varsity for lunch and came back and waited some more. I could have just came back another day to get it, but it is such a long drive up there I really just wanted to take it home that day, and for the first several hours everyone was on board with waiting out Performance's insanely slow service, but after a while folks started getting on edge. When they finally finished the bike we raced to the cashier before he could disappear, and I rode it out to the car... where I discovered that it clicks freakishly loud in 6th gear. I thought about taking it back in and saying, "Hi I think you've put something together wrong, could you please fix it?" But my will was so broken after the long wait, and evening rush hour traffic was building up, so I just slung it on the bike rack and headed home. Next time I'm trying to politely alert pedestrians of my presence I'll just kick it into 6th gear and watch while they dodge the rapidfire gunshot sounds. It's a really beautiful bike though... and super light. I love everything about it except that I had to buy it at Performance Bikes the day before 4th of July. I think if I had've come any other day, the service may of been better. I took it for a ride as soon as I got home and it is super fast. It is much faster on the road than any of my mountain bikes ever dreamed of being. I'm a little wobbly when coasting downhill, but Peter says I'll get less wobbly with practice. I'm actually kind of surprised with how much I love this bike. I'm pretty darn excited to take her out for a long ride on Saturday :)