Eye Candy: Cannondale Slice Women’s 5 105

I’m finally ready to share some photos of my new bike, a Cannondale Slice Women’s 5 105!

I should be out on my inaugural ride right now, but instead I’m sitting on the couch sucking down cough drops, soup broth and watching bad TV while Sam is out riding by himself…

Even though I’m too sick to do anything active, I decided it was high time I shared some pictures of my new ride.

As long as I was taking my bike outside I couldn’t help but take her for a quick spin around the neighborhood. This is wear it got a little ugly… This bike feels so much more different than my road bike. I think it is a combination of the aggressive position of the saddle and handle bars and the women’s specific fit. Plus, it’s been more than 4 months since I’ve ridden my bike outside. So, I was so excited for my first ‘ride’ that I clipped in one foot and then promptly fell over. But I have to say it was a “good” fall because it didn’t hurt anything but my ego.

So after I got back up and brushed myself off it was time to go. I waited for a significant break in traffic (no need to fall down again in the middle of the road) and took off. I’m going to be honest here… I was scared sh*tless. The handling on a tri bike is completely different and it didn’t help that I had already fallen over once. At first I was freaking out and terrified that I just spent a ton of money on a new bike that I was going to be too scared to ride.

I biked down to Astoria Park where there was a longer flat stretch where I didn’t need to worry about cars and intersections. However, I was still too scared to get down in aero… Plus, whenever I try to look over my shoulder to check for cars I’m swerving all over the place. I think that it’s going to take me a bit longer to get used to this new bike than I thought! 

But, I have to say that when I was biking up a small hill I could tell that once I'm used to this bike it's going to be awesome! It is so smooth and light - I'll be able to fly up those hills! I just have to keep reminding myself that it took time for me to get comfortable on a road bike and the tri bike is going to take time for me to get used to this bike too.

Once I got down to the water I took a few more pictures.

Most of the people down there were taking pictures of the bridge or the Manhattan skyline, but I was taking pictures of my bike!

During my bike fitting I upgraded to an Adamo road saddle. I can already tell from my fitting and my very short ride that I’m going to love this saddle! It looks a little funny but it takes all the pressure off the lady bits.