New Bike Shop, New Bike

Bicycle shops are divided into two categories: national chain stores and one man shows.
I advanced in my pursuit of becoming the quintessential old guy on a bicycle via the national chain store route.
All bike shops need to sell product...a lot of product as the competition is stiff and profit margins are low.  Keep that in mind when you walk into a bike store.

After spending most of the first "return to bicycling' season on a late 70s Fuji I was ready to upgrade.  Reaching down to shift gears and "feeling" the next lower or higher gear requires a body function comfortable with multi-tasking.  Unfortunately, I don't have one of those body types.  Shifting for me on the Fuji meant loosing speed, cursing and vows to give up this new found nonsense.
One day over lunch, I previewed the new line of Trek bicycles at a local chain store.  The sales guy looks at me and pronounces me a "Hybrid" type.  20 minutes later, I'm convinced I need a new Trek fx 7.5.  After all, the shifters are built into the handle bars.  It's lighter.  It's trendy, all the old guys in Florida ride a Trek fx.
I was hooked, had to have one, and $650 later, I owned one.
What a difference!  This thing made me look good and I was finally able to shift on the fly.  Man, I've arrived.
About 100 miles later, I discovered the Trek wasn't the panacea for hills that I yearned for.  And the stock seat; at Guantanamo, they could have saved all that evil empire waterboarding press and given all those prisoners a Trek fx with stock seats and they've been spilling their guts in no time.
Back to the chain store to buy a new seat and hear a sales pitch about a new gear set that would have me climbing hills like the boys in the peloton.  I bought the seat but begged off the stupid amount of money needed to replace my stock gear set.

I spent most of the season on the Trek and rather than appreciate the bike, I became accustomed to its nagging deficiencies.  Then, I met Mr. Bianchi