While I was looking around the Bike Rack for a few hours on Tuesday, I asked Wayne in his opinion, for my needs, commuting and occasional joy rides, which bike under $1000 was the best. He told me the Giant OCR 2. They did not have one in my size to test ride at that time and I got into a discussion with another gentleman at the store. I believe he was the owner, but not sure. Since I disliked the “Ram Horn” style of handlebars he suggested the FCR 1. Weighing in at 21 pounds with an Aluminum frame and Composite fork and seat post, I seriously am considering it. I came back tonight and they had a OCR 3 for me to test ride in my size. It was very light and moved very well. I had a very difficult time with the shifting however. I had never ridden a road bike before and I found myself holding the handlebars between the 2 positions. The shifting was really cool, but hard for me to figure out. Pushing the brake handle increased the gear and a small lever decreased the gears. I am sure it is very convenient and intuitive for a road bike rider, but for a mountain bike rider, it was very difficult. I think the worst part was that it was in high gear to begin with. They have an FCR 1 in a box and are going to build it up tomorrow for me to test ride, and likely buy on Saturday. I am hoping it is still there 🙂
Deciding on a Bike
So…I decided not to go to the local Wal-Mart to get a bike this time. I no longer picked a bike based on it’s color as I had several years ago when I got my yellow Huffy mountain bike. I checked out two local shops. The Bike Rack between 14th and 15th on Q St NW since it was so close to me. It was very small and did not have the bike I was looking to buy with a similar one on order from the factory. I was looking at the Swobo Dixon. Yesterday I was finally able to test ride the Otis. I was soooo disappointed in the quality and ride. I envisioned the bike to be larger and the twist shifter felt very cheap 🙁 I spent about 3 hours there and test road a Giant Suede, and a Giant Transcend. The Suede was very heavy, but had a “coolness” factor with plastic chrome hub caps and an automatic shifting 3 speed Shimano Coasting system. The first one I rode did not shift. I was told it was likely not assembled properly, but anything that requires electrical power to change gears makes me skeptical about the durability. The Transcend was cool as well. I liked the color and the rear rack was actually fashionable in my book. It was quite heavy as well, and while nice, did not capture my attention at all. I had my eyes on Carbon Fiber 🙂
Georgetown U Dupont Circle Route Change
Back on April 4th Georgetown announced, without any notice, that the bus which transports faculty, staff, students, and more to the campus from Dupont Circle would take a longer route to avoid the local neighborhood. While we don’t know the real reason for the change, rumors suggest neighbors complaints on noise and vibration of their old homes. The bus now takes a twice as long to get to campus as it travels up to the National Cathedral and then down Wisconsin to campus. The new route removes busses from a 4 block section across Rock Creek Parkway.
For some reason this really bothered me. Besides getting up earlier for the longer ride in, I think I truly did not like the new route. If it were a scenic route I probably would not complain about the longer ride. I vowed to buy a bicycle and checked out bikes at a local shop on Tuesday and walked to work on Wednesday since I did not find a bike on Tuesday night. See my next post on by bike decision…..