Today I got all excited because I thought I found the perfect bike. . . and I tried it out and everything but then in real riding conditions it turns out I hate the shifting system more than just about anything. It’s all crazy and weird and the shifting is really violent on the. . .uh. . . front shifters or something? Boo. But the shop said they’d take it back and so tomorrow I am doing just that. I am maybe a little heartbroken, but that’s OK. My bike is fine, just kind of slow, and I will wait until the right bike comes along for me. Boo.

UPDATE:

Well, my Tallahassee dawgg Trevor who knows bikes like woah called me back and talked to me about the bike for about 40 minutes, and reassured me that some of the difficulties I was having were purely learning-curve related, and that he thought the model I bought was actually really awesome for the kind of riding I want to do around Boulder. So I went in this morning and talked to the dudes over at Full Cycle and they helped me out a lot in terms of understanding why my bike acts like it does, and said the gears and stuff (professional bike terminology) were working fine. So I’m keeping it, and I’m pretty pleased now that I’m getting more used to it. The wrist shifters aren’t so bad, and the dude at the bike shop showed me how they’re actually really cool because I can custom-adjust them for different riding conditions. Also, if I end up hating it, I can apparently replace the click shift with some other kind, but I don’t think I’ll need to. It’s really so, so pretty, and it’s only going to get better since I’m modding it with some really silly sweet-looking silver fenders as soon as they come in. I already put a seat-leash on it, and so when my new messenger bag arrives from Timbuk2 and my back stops hurting all the fucking time from my ginormous stupid backpack I’ll be really riding in style.