[flyingdog]

Nice looking ride, skidmark. Very sleek and clean lines. Believe it or not, first thing I notice they have the rear brake cable running along the bottom of the top tube. Mine running along the top has always bugged me. Specially when it comes to transporting the bike. The vertical holder on my rack always smashes the cable to the frame. Minor annoyance, I know, still bug's me.

[Skidmark]

Thanks for the kind words. I have been riding less than six months and still on the up hill side of the learning curve. This bike is the first that I have been on that fit me. After we ordered it all I could do was wonder if I had made the right decision as there are so many choices and so many styles of riding. I am thrilled to say that the more I ride it the more I like it. My only complaint is my backside gets sore after and hour on the seat. That could be my fault because I was on back to back vacations and did not ride much for three weeks. I am also still working out the seat hight, fore / aft adjustments. Our bike carrier has plastic sliders the bike rests on with velcro straps over the top. Those sliders have a grove for the brake cable. Its the minor details things that bug me as well.

[flyingdog]

Know what you mean about personalizing your ride. I do the same. Non-stop. Drives the wife nutz. She's always pointing out this interesting shaped house, that pretty tree..etc etc etc. And here I'm checking out this position, that angle, tires, brakes.. etc etc etc. Only had this thing for few months and already changed out the seat, tires, brakes..well..you know how it is.

[smgordo13]

I am sop glad I stumbled into this thread.

My girlfriend and I just started riding. I wanted a road bike she wanted a cruiser but we wanted to ride together also. We ended up settling on hybrids. I had never hear of a hybrid before.
We have a horrible habit of starting something new and then 2-3 months later giving it up so we decided to shop CL and get cheaper used bikes 1st to prove that we would use them. In Aug, if we are still riding (which we will be), we agreed to buy new.
I was pointed to the Crosstrail and my GF was pointed toward the Specialized Ariel, which I guess is the womens Crosstrail? Anyway we tested a couple out and loved them. I cannot wait for Aug to get the new bikes ordered.
Thanks for posting about your new ride so I could learn a bit!

[flyingdog]

Welcome to Fray

Sounds like you will undoubtedly still be riding by your deadline. All the encouragement in the world can't sway a person if he/she are absolutely done with something once stared. Many things can happen. Money, job, time, relatives, momentary monkey butt. All you can do is....Just DOOOoooooIITTtttt!!

[wild]

Nice bike, ride it till the wheels fall off

[Saugus18]

Hey Skidmark... I've read some of your posts about your Crosstrail and couldn't agree with you more about the bike. After much researching and test riding hybrid type bikes I knew the Crosstrail was the one for me the first 100 yards of test riding it. Sometimes once I start riding it I can't get off the damn thing! I did get a different seat, Ergon grips and thinner road type tires and she rides great. Here's a pic of mine.

[TxCyclist]

Nice bike!