A cheeky bid on the 'bay this evening has bagged me a set of black Shimano ST-EF29-7 combo trigger shifters and brake levers for the price of a takeaway coffee plus postage. So I will be making the switch from the revoshifts when they arrive.
Another test ride at tea time had the rear gears jumping all over the shop again, although at least this time, the chain didn't get shipped into the spokes. But I'll be leaving the gears as is for now, and then re-cable and adjust everything properly when the shifter pods arrive.
I took the bike over a section of fairly gnarly farm track (bare earth with the ruts back filled with stones and chunks of brick), and it definitely inspires confidence. I do ride this trail regularly on the Raleigh Max as it's the traffic-free route to Littleport, and it copes well if I pick my path carefully. But the Hotrock does it better. I should point out however, that the Raleigh has much more of a road bias to it, with the higher (touring) gearing and commuter tyres, whereas the Specialized is set up for off-road with the fork, lower gearing and the big, fat and lightly-knobbled tyres. It's like the difference between trail running shoes and a pair of waterproof walking boots.
This second test ride highlighted two things:
One. It underlined the fact that I'm not a fan of revoshift. I can live with them if I had to, but I certainly wouldn't choose them as I don't find them intuitive. Or particularly ergonomic. That they're not really serviceable is also a factor. It seems daft to be expected to replace an entire shifter if all you want to do is replace the cable.
Two. The OEM pedals are far better than they look - they grip the bottom of my walking shoes pretty well. So I shall take them off, clean and service them, and put them back on. So that's 20 or 30 quid I don't need to spend. Which is good, because I want to do this impulse-buy rebuild on a shoestring.
So the shopping list has now been revised to the following:
1) gear cables
2) brake cables
3) saddle
4) mudguards
