New Bike

After spending the past few days researching road bikes, I pulled the trigger on a new road bike yesterday. I purchased the Lemond Zurich. I test drove a variety of different bikes from manufactures such as Felt, Cannondale, Specialized, Jamis, and Lemond. Initially, I was shopping in the $750 price range, but quickly realized I would need to spend more to find a bike with some of the features I desired.

One of my last stops yesterday was St. Cloud Scheels. I noticed the Lemond Zurich was deeply discounted, $800 of the original sticker price! The sales person explained the reason for the deep discount was to make room for fall and winter products. Although I was liking the price, would I like bike itself?

As soon as I hopped on the bike for a test drive I knew this was the bike for me. The Lemod Zurich rides like no other bike I test drove, and with an all carbon frame and Ultegra components, this bike rides extremely smooth and shifts with ease. The only question I now had to answer is if I purchase the 55cm or 57cm size. I opted for the 55cm version because after riding the 57cm size, I felt like my back need to be cracked. According to the sales person, the feeling in my back was caused by extending myself too far, therefore, the 55cm size would be the better fit for me.

Last night, I took my new bike on my 15 mile practice route. While I was a little disappointed in my time of 42 minutes (I expected to shave off 5+ minutes converting from a mountain bike to a road bike), I only shaved off 2 minutes from my previous best time of 44 minutes with my mountain bike, I enjoyed the ride.

One issue I discovered was my knees were sore, somewhat of an aching feeling about 3/4 of the way through the ride, and continued to ache after finishing. A quick Google search revealed the most common cause of sore knees when biking is due to improper saddle height. However, I believe my saddle height is set correctly, my legs are almost completely straight when completing the full down stroke (think 6 o'clock). Another possible cause listed was using too high of a gear (think peddling hard). The recommended solution is to use a lower gear (peddling easy) with a faster cadence. If anyone has any other recommendations, please let me know.

I think I may bring the bike back to Scheels and make sure I'm properly fitted before my next ride. If all goes well, I'm planning on riding in my first tour this weekend, Tour de' Prairie Lakes!