Introductions - Good Morning

Hello everyone , My name is Jose Vela and i was born in NY to 2 great parents . lived there for 21 years till i burnt out and need a vacation lifestyle thats when i decided to move down to in 93 miami and absorb a different quality of sun,woman and water that NY seemed to lack . in 99 i met my wife Ileana and we married in 2001 and had a son Justin in 2003 . i have a younger brother Miguel who is like my best friend (weird for brothers) and we are into cars (speed) where we have ocassionally raced at a few famous tracks in florida. then after realizing the time and money spent on cars , modifying them and everything else i decided to enter the fire dept in 2004 where in order to pass the physical ability test i was in need of some serious Cardio workouts . i purchased my first road bike in dec 31 2005 (specialized allez 96) and started riding to work and back 20 miles round trip a day . then i wanted more milage so i started riding about 40-50 on sundays with a big group from a local bike club . thats pretty much when i got hooked, just like when i got hooked with cars and speed. i was surrounded by carbon fiber bike that looked and felt awsome and i was riding a dinosaur . since i was training for the fire dept i had built allot of speed and endurance and was the fastest in sprints and climing the bridge standing up. but i got obsessed with carbon fiber and weight reduction that in 8 months i went from a Specialized 96 allez (27 lbs ) to a Specialized Sworks E5 full dura ace (17lbs flat) . thats how bad i got bit by the cycling bug and maybe a touch of midlife crisis.LOL i now own 4 bikes 3 road and 1 mountain bike . nice to meet you all and its really nice to have a hobby that i love and gives me great health out of it too!!!!!

Welcome Jose! I'm from NY as well. That S-Works looks beautiful and the rigid mtb should be pretty good on trails and help you learn good technical skills. Now you just need a fixie to add to your stable.

To other newbies, this an example of an excellent introduction. There's some info about him and more importantly, pics of his bikes! :)

Just curious since im new to the cycling scene but what is "Fixie" ?

My grandmother learnt to ride on a fixie. She used to tell me how difficult it was to get started, but then she wore an ankle length dress, which made things a lot more difficult than spandex shorts.

A fixie is a fixed wheel (aka fixed gear) bike. The pedals and chainring are directly connected to a fixed cog on the rear wheel. The fixed cog cannot coast so when the bike is moving, the chainring and pedals move. You can pedal both backwards and forwards on the bike, but you can't coast while moving.

now that i understand Fixie , yes its definetly the next one on my list. there is a velodrome about 45 minutes away from home and ive been so tempted at going and checking out the nice fixie's they use in that track. a fixie is definetly on my christmas list and then go crazy and get a Zipp 999 disk track real wheel and maybe a zipp 404 for the front , i love that look . i passed by a triathlon today and thats all you saw at the bikeing event was disk rear's and deep dish in the fronts . totally awsome . thanks again for the info guys