Bars are now dropped, Ultegra front brake installed and impressive, gearing raised to 69". I confess that I wasn't sure if I wanted to go under seventy, since I am happier hauling than hamstering, but when Uncle Sheldon reported that a 16 tooth rear cog would give 69.0, I just couldn't resist.
First decent run was last night, from Perth station to Forfar. There was (I guess by estimated ages) a grandfather putting a wee girl onto the train to join her mother, only he didn't quite get round to doing it before the train left. The platform staff saw him and granddaughter panicking so stopped the train and all was well, but I couldn't help but think: you had one job. Get wee girl on train. How do you #*}! that up? They were standing there talking the entire time I was fettling bag, bike, lights, GPS, noms, phone and cetera, so it wasn't like they'd run in from outside the station.
I promptly made as poor a job of leaving Perth as that bloke did of getting the girl on the train - the one-way system appeared to my feeble navigational skills to have been designed by the same person that did the Labyrinth - but from then on it was jaunt of surpassing scenic-odonkulousness home. The evening was gloriously hazy and sunny, so Strathmore valley looked amuzzn.
Mechanical problems were limited to a need of chainring bolt tightening and me being not that comfy with how spinny 69" is on roads I don't know well. By handy dint of maths, your rpm is almost exactly five times your mph in that gear so I don't need help to know that my 32mph maximum meant 160rpm, which is why I didn't like it very much. That's in the region where control of the bike requires undivided attention and effort but is still maintained.
The ride is unrelentingly harsh - between 23mm tyres and the frame, you get told in no uncertain terms about any imperfection in the surfacing - but it's magnificently efficient and responsive to torque. I had a fine tailwind the entire way, so I will withhold judgement until I need to tackle the headwind on returning tomorrow, but it often felt like the bike was riding itself.
And it's pretty.
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