The CRJ700 used to be the only UA aircraft on which I would reserve a bulkhead seat in first, since the legroom used to be quite adequate. However, with UA's fairly recent reconfiguration of seats on the 700, the row 1 seats were moved noticeably closer to the bulkhead wall, at least 1A was, and legroom was no longer comfortable to me.
If you stay on the non-stop 700, I'd suggest you sit in row 2, if you are not already.