I did my first proper ride on my new mountain bike today. 5 miles offroad (felt like more, as always). The bike is so much more stable and fun offroad than my comfort bike. I screwed up on a couple of hills due to stopping for walkers/dogs then being in the wrong gear to get going again, but also got a nice cadence going on a couple of other stretches. I do have a problem with the left thumb shifter, it has too much travel in it so I'll see if the shop can do anything about that. I'm not 100% sold on the pedals either, they seem to have rather less traction than the ones on my Marin, especially when wet.

Beautiful ride today though. Stunning views over rolling fields, there's still a bit of snow and ice around (I LOVE frozen puddles!) and the bike just kept making me laugh. The chain came off once, but went back on ok and I came off once after a dodgy start but was fine, just a bit muddy. 3 degrees or thereabout, but I was toasty warm.