Super Awesome New Road Bike

I bought a super new awesome road bike last Sunday (not yesterday, the Sunday before yesterday). It is mondo expensive but with a purchase like this, which I'm gonna use a ton, it's good to get something that I know won't break down and need repairs a week into me using it.

The three previous Saturdays were spent trekking down to the southside to check out Working Bikes. For those of you not in the know, it is this super small shop on Western, a block or so south of Taylor. They take donated bikes and give them to poor kids across the seas. But they also fix donated bikes and sell them to poor Chicagoans. Most of the bikes they have go for between $40 and $99; although I did see one bike on sale for $150 - but it was a really nice bike. I probably would have bought that expensive bike but it was way too small for me. If I had been 5' 6", that bike would have been mine.

The first weekend I went down there was Easter Sunday weekend. They were closed. Completely my fault for not figuring they would be or at least calling first.

The second weekend I went down there, I went on a Saturday and got there around 1:15pm. All the bikes were gone.

The third weekend I went down there, I went on a Saturday and this time got there before they opened. I almost slept through the time I need to start my hike down there but luckily woke up in time and wisely decided to skip showering and eating in order to get there on time. I got there so early that I basically volunteered myself to help them move bikes over from a block away to there store.

Now, I didn't know this since I've never ridden a road bike, not even my Dad's old 10-speed, but old road bikes have the gear changers in a very odd space. They're basically at the base or top of the handlebars. I'm used to the newer models of mountain bikes where you can change the gears where you have your hands. As such, I needed to find a newer model road bike. And since I had been desiring a road bike for the past month and a half, I decided to bite the bullet and buy new.

I went to Kozy's Bikes downtown (thought they'd have a wider selection than they one on Halsted) and picked out a nice road bike. I went home and immediately realized that I bought the wrong type of road bike. I wanted a sport model, which had the super awesome gear changers right next to the hand brakes. So I went back the next day and got my order changed. They said they had the bike on order and it would arrive in about a week and then they would have to put it together, with the extras that I bought with it, like a back fender to keep the dirt off my back.

So it's been a week since I placed the order and I hope and expect to get a call Wednesday or Thursday telling me my bike is ready. I cannot wait. Then I will sell my current hybrid bike - hoping to get 200 bones for it - to make my bike purchase hurt a little less in my wallet.

But it will all be worth it to be able to cut throught the wind and go fast and change gears without have to wait a few seconds for the gears to actually change. So awesome. So super awesome.