With the temps above freezing I went to pick it up yesterday. I hit up Mountain Equipment Co-op first and scored some Shimano PD-A520 pedals:
This is a conventional SPD so it works with my existing Lake MTB shoes but it's got a nice sleek road look. I had some concerns about the fact that they only take the cleat on one side, but I got used to it very quickly and so far I'm very happy with them.
I had some errands to run so my introductory ride ended up being ~15k of back-and-forth through the city with a backpack getting steadily heavier. The short story is that I love this bike. I have never bought myself a really nice bicycle that I had a lot of lust for before. And the experience of riding fixed so far is everything it's cracked up to be - it's so smooth and silent, so simple, direct, and elemental. The experience of riding this bike in traffic was the same mix of excitement and nerves that I had when I got my first motorcycle.
I actually had dreams of riding the bike as I was drifting off last night, and I woke up an hour earlier than I normally would and my first thoughts were of the bike. Jesus - a 38 year old man with a new bicycle but my emotions are more like a 12 year old girl with a new pony.
I've got some work to finish up this morning, then I hope to go out for a ride of ~50k or so. I've got a couple of trips planned for the spring and summer (one 180k day in the spring, and ~140k twice in 3 days in the summer) - my Cypress R hybrid set up for touring is the logical choice for those rides, but I can't stop thinking about how much I'd like to take the new bike. Time will tell.
Pics to follow.
Thanks to all for the advice and encouragement.
