New Tri Bike 101

So I made the big purchase. I now own a new Fuji Tri Bike! I found the process somewhat stressful...what to choose, how much to spend, which components, a tri or a road bike. Well with this purchase I felt the need for speed and headed out on my first ride. Let me break this story down for you into segments: the seat, the bumps, down positioning on bars/cadence, fast cars, gears and chain.
As you may know I am transitioning from a mountain bike which I might add is WAY different than the beast on was on yesterday! My mountain bike has what I would like to call the "recliner"of seats, some may even throw out "grama" seats, whatever, it's comfy! Not so much on the new bike, in fact here are a few adjectives that describe it: ouch, pinch, yowza-not there, am I home yet? Robyn, who sold me the bike said I would need to toughen up the seat area--she wasn't kidding!
Next would be the bumps, or should I say just the road? The mountain bike, mediocre as it was, at least had some shock control. The new bike I think I in fact feel every pebble that wasn't quite caught in the cement mix put in by the road crew. Good night! I nearly throttled myself off the bike when I ran over a small bump on the centennial trail mind you. But, listen I looked good, my bike is sleek, fancy and fast. That's worth it right?
Onto the reason we buy these tri-bikes, the down positioning. I'm sensing a great stretch of road, so I maneuver myself down into my aero position. After some readjusting of my seat and toosh I feel pretty good. The other mind boggling item on my ride is my pedal cadence. Before purchase (BP) I consistently tried to keep my pedal rotation fairly high. It should be between 90-100 in fact. Well the new bike has, of course, an odometer, and cadence recorder. So actually my great pedaling was only around 76 BP so needless to say self had quite a work out keeping those pedals at 90! Good grief!
After going around 8 miles I turn around to head back home. Approximately 2 miles of the way home are on the highway. Let's review so far, I been riding fast, pedals are moving rapidly to keep with the 90 rule, and let's face it, I'm tired. Now I have cars moving FAST right next to me, no shoulder, and folks these are people similar to myself who are heading to work with no time to spare if you get my drift. The new bike is great when you're in the down position, not as comfy when sitting more upright which is what I have to do next to these fast cars. My skills, the list is long, are not allowing me to ride next to the curb and cars without crashing myself. So now I have fast cars, tired Kim, ouchy buns, and I'm beginning to break down mentally. I need to get off the road, in fact I'm nearly freaking out. So I'm looking for options and see a turn off just ahead for a retirement home. Unfortunately it's just a horseshow type thing right back to the highway but I stop and regroup. I then see a small dirt path next to the road and think, yah, I'll give that a try. Once on the path with the tall weeds I realize it's not really the right fit with my sleek tri bike. So I stop, yet again. I look over my shoulder and see a Tri Fusion shirt with gentleman riding with no problem next to the fast cars. He greets me and is probably wondering why I'm in the weeds but needless to say that gives me a little motivation to keep going. So I make it off the road into my development.
So in the development my mind is isn't working great and I'm trying to shift down, yet using the wrong shifter. So now, I'm freaking out thinking that my bike, my NEW bike, is not working right. I pull into the driveway, get off and my bike chain falls off. Before crying I text my bike expert, Roger Thompson. While waiting for his reply my husband saves the day and puts the bike chain back on, like in two seconds. So that crisis was over. Then he casually switches the gears back down for me, by using the correct gear lever. Luckily it was too early to immediately start drinking.
After a few calls to other trusted bike chicks I think I'm going to make it. My bike shop assured me that my next ride would be smoother and to practice shifting my gears a few more times.

Thanks to Joey, my three year old, for taking these pictures of me on my new ride!