We have three Bike shops in my area. One has an owner with a real condescending attitude and his store smells like his old dirty dog. He caters to the beach cruiser crowd and childrens bikes.

The Second one is the Cannondale/Giant dealer. Owned by a couple of super nice guys. Well stocked with accessories. Unfortunately, they don't seem to know much beyond Beach Cruisers and kids bikes. When I bought my Bike a couple of weeks back, I went to his store to look at the Cannondales. When I started asking him about the bikes, he didn't seem to know much about the road bikes and their accessories. When I asked what size bike he thought I should buy, he answered "Well, sit on a couple of them and see what feels good." "And, if we don't have what you want, we can order it for you."

The thrird shop is the Trek dealer. They don't have a huge line of accessories to offer but have an owner who is an avid cyclist. When I asked about the different series of Trek Road bike, I got all of my questions answered. When I asked about fit, they put a couple of bikes in the trainer for me and spent time making sure that I would end up with the correct size bike.

Intially, I had planned to buy either a Trek 1.4 or Cannondale CAAD9 6.

The Cannondale shop had only a CAAD9 5 but not in the size that I felt would be correct (it wasn't) and the one they had was smaller than what I really needed. But, they could order it for me.

The Trek shop did not have the 1.2 in the size I needed either but had several other AF bikes and a number of CF bikes.

Well, to end this long story, I ended up trying out several of the AF bikes along with the Madone 4.5 and a Madone 5.2.

The rest is now history. I bought the Madone 4.5 for two reasons. 1. I liked it better than the AF bikes and 2. The LBS made me a good deal on it.

What a shame that we don't have a store here that could combine the best of The Cannondale shop and the Trek shop. That would be an awesome LBS.

Thanks for reading.

Ed