New bike!!!

So, I got a new bike yesterday, a Specialized Tricross Sport (and, yes, both of those links are the same). I haven't brought it home from the shop yet, on account of being in Madison and the shop being in Iowa City (we're picking it up on the way home in a few days), so no pics yet, but the product page will give you a decent idea.

It is SO COOL. I've tried a number of cross bikes over the last couple years, but the Tricross is the only one that really handled the way I wanted it to (though I suspect that with a bit of tinkering the Trek XO-1 or the Raleigh RX.1 could do alright--but the stock versions were a little twitchy and uneven to me). So this will be my new cyclocross/road/light trail bike. Not sure I want to take the carbon fork off any drops, at least not until I've put enough miles on it to see what it can take, but for everything else, it's teh jam. Time to start training up for cross season! After all, it's only three and a half months until Jingle Cross Rock, and less than a month until the 'cross season officially starts. Not sure there's any races other than jingle around FF, though. I used to run cross country in high school, and I've always thought the fall is a great time for racing, and I want to do it again.

Funny thing, though: you know what sold me on the Tricross, back when I first rode one two years ago? there's a bell integrated into one of the bar-top brake levers. I mean, sure, it rides super-nice, I got a great deal on it, it has (more or less) exactly the parts mix I wanted (only thing I'd change is a double crank instead of the triple, but I can live with the triple just fine), but that bell? It just put me over the top.

I'll put pictures up when we get back to FF.