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Tonight I watched northern lights dancing over the lake   

Pretty sure it was Charlie Kirk's last assassination.

RIP wallet. Ended up buying a Cannondale Synapse. I had about 7-8 people who helped advise on this (thanks, Brent, Al, Nate) and at the end of the day I decided to give an endurance road bike a try. There is so much good content on YouTube as well. I really liked the GCN videos to get me up to speed on everything. The single most important factor in my choice ended up being doing the demo weekend on the Specialized Diverge. I learned: I want something that feels faster than Diverge did on road I wanted a nicer group set than whatever came on the Diverge Carbon Comp I don’t particularly enjoy riding on dirt roads (at least so far) 54 was probably the right size to get for me That I wanted carbon That I didn’t like a 1x That I didn’t want suspension Putting all that feedback together, I focused in on endurance road bikes. A bike that is not the fastest but easy to control and comfortable for long distances on road sounded like just the ticket. The Synapse seems to be a well loved bike throughout the years and now comes with a slick tech integration where the shifting, light and radar all run off a single battery. I had no light and radar to bring to the table so getting them as part of the package seemed like a good idea. People hated the v1 of the tech stuff but they just refreshed with a v2 setup that seems quite a bit better thought out. The massive down tube storage also means I can fit all the tools in there and don’t need a saddle bag. I struggled with the e-bike vs. regular bike debate. I really wanted to demo a fancier e-bike for the weekend but after calling around for hours the only e-bikes available to demo were either eMTB or motorized beach cruisers. Neither would be a good test. A co-worker also said this, which has stuck with me: “If you are buying a bike for fitness, why the heck would you buy an e-bike.” Yes, that besmirches what modern e-road bikes are, but they also are not entirely wrong. I will be giving up a lot of rides until my fitness level improves, but that was a trade off I was comfortable making. I think if I still lived in Marin it would have been e-bike all the way, but climbing is optional in the Sacramento River Valley. I’m super excited to go out and log some miles! Already failed to clip out at a stop and “pulled a Brent,” so we at least have that out of the way. The shop helped me relax the pedal tensioner so now it is a little more forgiving. Finally, celebrated the first ride with an appropriate cake. 😉

Decided to push hard today. Got stuck in a little traffic but was still relatively speedy.