My carbon fiber temptress

Just so you know that I am a multi-dimensional person (IOW, I do more than run), I thought I'd write a post about my bike.  Yes, I have one and she's a beaut!

For years Husband and I rode our tandem bike, AKA the "comfy-family-station-wagon-complete-with-useful-luggage-rack-and-squishy-gel-seat-cover", on many adventures with our hardy friends.  And not to abandon "Old Wagon", we have more adventures on the Wish List.  Some of those adventures will likely pop up in future posts.  (Note:  I'm the one who insists on a gel seat cover.   Husband gave up trying to convince me how NOT-cool it is.)

But with the tandem, I could never ride when Husband didn't.  So we went shopping.  We narrowed down our choices to three top contenders, with a certain Cannondale standing out above the others.  Since Husband had to work and couldn't devote yet another day to the decision process, I headed out alone on day two.  My plan was to take said Cannondale out for some serious road testing.  Which I did.  But alas, there was no spark between us.

Wondrously-patient-salesperson, Jason, suggested that the fit wasn't quite right and brought out another bike so that I could try a different size.  This size-testing bike was a luscious blue women's-specific Specialized Amira, and it was love at first sight.  No one else in the store seemed to notice the heavens opening nor hear the angelic choirs as he carried it down from the upper room.  I took that seductive piece of bicycle mastery outside and cautiously rode it up the hill.  We floated.  The gears were, as they say, like butter.  After circling the block, we went back inside and I gingerly asked, "How much does THIS one cost?"
"You don't want to know," said Patient Jason.
I went back to the Cannondale, but it was no use.  My heart was still floating in butter and my usual very-frugal-nature was abandoning ship.  I called Husband.  He and Google promptly launched into the research.  Good reviews.  Good components.  Carbon fiber.  Lots of technical stuff that didn't mean much to me.  If he liked it, I knew it was good.  He did.
"Go for it."  says he.
"It's expensive." says I.
"I don't care."  says he.
So I took Blue Temptress out for another, longer test ride and we explored a bit of SE Portland together.  All in all, some five hours AFTER I first entered the store, AFTER price negotiations, AFTER Patient Jason & I added each other to our Christmas card lists, ... I took my blue buttery-bike home.  That was 13 months ago, and I'm still dazzled by her sleek beauty.  She's my mid-life-crisis Ferrari.

The down side is that a new bike fails to come with a new motor, and Dazzling-Ferrari and I are forever hampered by my middle-aged legs, lungs, heart and utter lack of killer-bike-rider spirit.  I'm all for a vigorous ride but, oddly enough, I prefer some FUN in the process.  Competitive, blood-and-guts racing just isn't me.  Plus, as I quickly learned, strong bike-riding legs must come from ACTUAL BIKE-RIDING and don't necessarily come from running 10Ks.  (My ego took a big hit on that one.)  So Dazzling-Ferrari might also be called "Overkill" because with me, she'll never be able to really show off what she's made of.  But we can have fun together.

And one year, several hundred miles later (without the seat cover) .... we do!