trainchaser

So, I just finished the first decent ride, 6 miles, on my new bike, a Specialized Crosstrail Sport Disc, and I can truly say that this time I made the right decision, this is one nice bicycle!! I'd originally bought a Specialized Expedition after the salesgirl at the first store mis-diagnosed what I needed. It only took 3 rides on that bike to realize I'd made a serious mistake. Unfortunately this particular store has a no return policy on any bike they sell, so when they said "...you can't return the bike." I replied "...then I guess I can't return as a customer and you lose any and all goodwill that I may have given to everyone I know." Fortunately I think I have several folks interested in the Expedition who are only interested in cruising around their neighborhoods as opposed to riding the extensive trail system that we have in mind.

The Crosstrail is definitely the nicest bike I've ever had. My first bike was a Schwinn 10 speed that I got for Christmas way back in the early 60's, and I've gone through several similar bikes since then. 15 years ago we did the MTB thing as a family and thoroughly thrashed the things. Now we're both overweight and in our late 50's/early 60's and definitely going to benefit from getting back onto some decent bikes again. Gotta say I really like the disc brakes, took me a few minutes to get accustomed to the sound they make when you apply them, but they sure do a great job of stopping you! I did have them change a couple things on the bike at the LBS I now go to, I got a set of Ergon gp2 grips and they are amazingly comfortable, a lot better than the stock grips, I also had them swap the standard seat for a Specialized Sonoma saddle in the 175 size as I'm definitely a wider person than what the stock 145 seat fits. They discussed fit with me and because I'm short of leg and long of torso, they moved the saddle further to the rear of the seat rails and it's a lot better that way. this setup is working very nicely, which is, again, a good thing as you'll soon know if you made the wrong choice of saddle.

So we'll keep you posted as our adventures continue, our goal is to build up our strength and stamina, lose more weight, and definitely increase our mileage. My personal goal is to eventually utilize one of the trails and ride this bike into town, where we have several clients we handle who all live in the same general vicinity.

cheers,

the Millers