So, I finally got to go for a ride today--just a short one to the dairy shop where I buy milk. Probably about 3 miles each way. This bike definitely seems faster and wind resistance is much less of an issue because of the riding position (which is good news since headwinds happen a lot here). I did have to walk it up the steep hill I have to go over both there and back, but that hill was no fun on the hybrid either and I could barely stay in the saddle on that even though it had a triple. I think once I get around to adding that third chainring to this bike it will be great on hills--time to go to Earn-a-bike, help out in the shop, and see if they have the necessary parts and can help me do that. On the way to the store, somebody decided to pull out in front of me as I was bombing down the other side of that hill and I was barely able to stop in time! The other "interesting" part of the ride was the grooved pavement (with some gravel scattered on it to boot) I encountered on one of the main roads--not the nicest thing to ride on, and it made me a little nervous riding on it with skinnier tires than I was used to (my hybrid has 38s and this bike came with 25s). However, it did end up giving me a lot more confidence in being able to handle crummy roads on those tires, because I got through that section without problems. Coming home with a bit of a load in the panniers, I could barely tell I was carrying anything because it didn't really affect the handling. Nice! Overall, a good first ride on the "new" bike. I'll probably take a picture later today and post it, if I can figure out how to post pictures...