I got my first outing on her today; 54 miles at the Diss Cyclathon. My initial thoughts;
I'll start with a few niggles...
- The rear brake was awful at first. The bite point was waaay too low and once it had bitten the braking performance was significantly worse than the front. Add to that the ungodly noise it made at low speeds and I found myself not wanting to pull the lever
Fortunately I suspect this was mostly due to the bedding in process as the noise and braking improved significantly over the course of the ride. I think once it's been bled through again and the bite point is where it should be it will be spot on
- The front brake played up for a mile or so - after a period of heavy braking the pads rubbed for a while. Again I think this will be better after proper bleeding, I suspect they're not fully retracting if there's air in there somewhere. Could also have been excess heat buildup as I didnt dare use the back brake at the time
- A few spoke noises from the front wheel. Nothing alarming but there's no harm in asking them to check it over for me when it goes in. They all seem tight enough but one of them has visibly twisted slightly which seems odd (they're the flat blade style spokes).
- The gearing is going to take some getting used to; I've gone from a 34-32 low gear on the Roubaix to a 36-28 and my poor little legs felt it up the steeper hills
- The matt black/celeste is going to be a real pain to keep clean
And then the positives...
- My god is it nice to ride! 54 miles on a bike that was barely set up and yet this afternoon I felt like I could do it all again
It was a pleasure from start to finish, even with the niggles. It probably helped that I properly indexed the gears and did some tweaks beforehand but I'm really pleased with the bike
- Very responsive, tucks in to corners nicely and generally goes where you point it in much the same way as the Aria did but without being quite so bone-shakingly stiff
- It's quick! 54 miles is the second longest ride I've completed to date, and yet today I managed my fastest ever average speed. Which is only 17.4mph but I'm really pleased with it
So, next step is to contact Elmy's and get it booked back in later in the week for a proper fit and to iron out the niggles. Then it's onwards and upwards to next weekend's 70 mile Sportive
Happy days