While I'm still 18.6 pounds away from breaking 200, at which point I promised myself a new road bike, I've been doing research around town as to what brand and model I might like to get. Today I test rode a Felt Z5 at a shop a couple of miles from my office. The sales guy told me it might be hard to start out on since it was on the big ring, but a gradual downhill slope in the parking lot helped.

So I'm heading down the lot, knowing I'll have to climb back up to the starting point soon, so I decide to get back on the small ring ahead of time. Here's where it gets embarrassing. I'd never ridden a bike with "brifters" before. I didn't know which lever went which direction, gear-wise. I know enough from 40 years of riding to know the front and rear levers work in reverse from one another, but not knowing how the rear one worked meant I didn't know how the front one did, either. So I guessed. Wrong. The front derailleur went outboard of the big ring just enough to drop the chain.

I dismounted and started to try to get the chain back on the chainring, and the salesman came jogging up. We then went through a virtual Abbott and Costello routine of my trying to hold the rear wheel off the pavement while manipulating the front levers to move the cage the direction he needed it to go so he had room to get the chain on the teeth. It took several attempts on my part to remember which lever to use to get it where it needed to go. Not exactly a "smooth ride."

The bike itself was fantastic, though, and an extremely "smooth ride." If I were already under that 200 pound mark, I would have bought it. But I promised myself (and more importantly my wife) I'd wait, even if that means I might miss out on a year-end special or two. Though I gotta say, I'm SORELY tempted to go back to the shop and see if they'd do some kind of layaway for me. I'd do it if we hadn't just had to replace an $850 computer board in our well pump control panel, and if I wasn't about to take a week off without pay so I can go on vacation with my wife and her family.