Bike Overload...

I made the mistake of going to a few bike shops today... and now I'm completely overwhelmed!

Every shop had a different line of bikes - good to see a lot of different things, but it means that it's hard to compare between them - there's some good deals out there at the moment as these are the 2009 models they're selling off, and the 2010 models are just coming in - frankly I don't really care what year my bike was made in!

All the bikes I looked at were either all carbon frames, or mostly carbon frames, and all of the 3 places I went were quite knowledgeable.

I started out at Gears Bike Shop out in Mississauga - they are the bike shop sponsor for the triathlon I did last year, so I knew they'd have an idea of what I was looking for. They showed me a couple bikes from Specialized - the Tarmac Elite and the Tarmac Comp. The Elite is on sale for $1800 down from $2400, while the comp is on for $2250 down from $3000... yeah, this so isn't a cheap sport! There's not a lot of physical difference between the two, but the Comp has some better components in it - better brakes for example - and for me braking does seem like a rather important factor! Gears also offer free fitting of the bike - they've got people trained by Specialized to do this, as well as they offer free tune-ups while I wait on the bike for as long as I own it. Everything I looked at today had the Shimano 105 gears, derailleur etc, but the big difference the guy at Gears pointed out to me between the two was that the Comp uses a Shimano 105 chain, where the Elite does not - apparently this makes gear changes with the Comp smoother and faster. Is this and better brakes worth $450?

Next was into Wheels of Bloor where I spent some time chatting with Peter there. I've frequently walked past this place and eyed up the racks of Cervello bikes they have hanging in there, so it really should have been no surprise when the first bike he showed me was Cervello S1 - sitting pretty at a cool $2500... ouch... This is a full on pro bike though - we spent some time chatting about riding geometry - I was letting everyone know that I was going to be using this road bike for triathlon use, so he explained about how they have a different seat post for the S1 that would change the angle so that I'd be using the muscles in my legs differently when riding so that coming off it into the run wouldn't be quite so straining (you know, not straining after the 1500m swim and 40k bike... not straining at all there...) Dropping down in price a bit he showed me a couple other bikes, first the Devinci CX on sale for $1999, which may well be the prettiest bike I'd seen all day and then the Argon 18 Krypton (how's that for a cool bike name) which rings in at $1799 on sale - this is the bike in the picture above. Argon is a Canadian company who's really out to compete with Cervello apparently - so says Peter - he didn't think there was much functional difference between the Cervello S1 and this Argon - other than the massive price difference of course! When you factor in I'm still going to need pedals and shoes on top of all this, the numbers are starting to add up... Wheels of Bloor do the free fitting as well as a couple years of tune-ups - although Peter was a bit nonchalant about tune-ups - indicating that if a bike was set up right the first time round it shouldn't need any tuning up - I don't know enough about bikes to comment on this, but I suppose if you're riding regularly there is some sense in that?

Onto Racer Sportif where I spoke with a guy named Kim. It took a while to get someone's attention in here to talk to, but Kim seemed to know his stuff once we got chatting. He showed me a couple bikes, the first being the Aquila Diablo. Their advertising says it's the official bike of the devil himself... I'm undecided if that's a good feature or not for a bike! Can we get devilishly fast without making like the devil on inclines? Anyhow, this was the first European bike I'd been shown - everything in Wheels of Bloor was Canadian made, while the Specialized bikes were American. Again, not sure that makes any difference at all - again it's a carbon frame bike, with the Shimano 105 gears. Kim did make a point of pointing out the width of the bottom point of the frame though where the seat tube meets by the chain - apparently this is quite wide on this bike which is supposed to give you more stability. The other two places didn't mention anything about tube width in places, but I would have assumed that the wider something was the less aerodynamic it was, no? He also showed me the Scott CR1 this one's on sale at $2190 down from $2890 - another nice looking bike, again with all the same apparent specs as everything else I looked at today - I was getting bike saturated by this point! Kim did chat with me a bit about shoes though - and how the clipless pedals improve your ride by allowing you to use the power while kicking back and up as well as on your down pedal. We looked at the difference between a nylon soled shoe and a carbon soled shoe - there wasn't a lot of difference in weight, but the nylon did bend slightly - you want biking shoes to be as stable as possible so you're using your whole foot to pedal with apparently - this explains why I get numb toes when doing a long ride in my trainers - I'm only using the ball of my foot.... Oh, and Racer Sportif do all the custom fitting included in the price as well - and Kim seemed to want to push their riding groups on me as well - they go out every Sunday and do long rides - I'm not sure I'm a long ride Sunday type person, but maybe as I get into more tri training....

So, the overall impression of what I learnt today is that with the right fit and shoes the ride is going to be significantly more comfortable, and efficient - all that equals to faster times, and a happier Dri by the time I get off the bike!

I also popped into RPM Studio while I was out - they specialize in spinning and gravity classes - we have 3 classes from the 8 minute path to fitness deal to use, and I was curious about what exactly gravity training was! The place was deserted when I went in, so the guy there had a lot of time to show me around and chat - he is actually on the racing team with Wheels of Bloor, so was able to give his opinion on the local bike shops too. I'm slightly more enlightened about gravity training - it's essentially using all your muscle groups while you're on a padded board that's affixed to an inclined ramp. You use a pulley system to complete the exercises they're asking you to do - it's an hour long group class and certainly worth trying once! He also relaxed me a bit about spinning classes - I've seen people in spinning classes - they look crazy intense! His words of wisdom were to make sure to let the instructor know it was your first time so they can help you set up your bike, then you control the intensity from there... easy huh? Yeah, ok, I'll try it and then we'll see! I think the biggest thing about why I find a spinning bike so much more challenging than a regular bike is that there's no coasting on a spinning bike - the pedals keep on moving - and you keep on moving... draw what you will from that!

That's some crazy post to talk about being overwhelmed by bike selection - does anyone actually HAVE one of these bikes - any opinions?