First ride report :)

[Catrin]

Rode my Gunnar for the first time this morning With impending rain it was a short ride, shorter than I would have liked, but a 55 minute ride was better than nothing!

I took her over to Eagle Creek Park - this is mainly a nature preserve with lots of walking trails (no bikes), lots of hills, and enough roads to ride a 6-7 mile loop. I wasn't trying for speed, just wanted to feel her out a bit, get used to the X0 grip shifters and so forth.

Shifting was fantastic, I really like them and they are not overly large for my hands. Different range of gears than I am accustomed to and I think I will like this gearing better than my LHT. The ride is even cushier than the LHT which was a surprise, but it is better steel. The bike is 10.5 pounds lighter than the LHT, though my overall speed seemed lower than the LHT. This is probably related to the size of the tires - they installed Conti Trail Contacts, 1.75 wide tires and my LHT has City Contacts (1.50 wide). At some point I will replace these tires with skinnier ones, but not now. There is no more money for more bike stuff for now...

I've an idea to get another set of wheels for the Gunnar, same wheels, but with skinner tires and then I could switch them between Gunnar and LHT as desired/needed. That would allow me to use the bomb-proof but quite heavy wheels on my LHT when I want, but also provide the option of dropping weight with the lighter wheels when desired - both have a 9-speed cassette so that shouldn't be a problem. That will have to come later...

Saddle discomfort limited my ride to just under an hour, but there was no numbness. This saddle does work for me, we just need to dial in the fit - and that will happen in a couple of weeks - trying to get a few miles on the bike before then. It may have been a short-related problem as well, but time will tell.

Awesome first ride! Hopefully tomorrow I can take out the Jamis and get a few pavement miles on her to get used to the SRAM trigger shifters. Lots of church activities this weekend, but I will be able to fit in some riding time

[Trek-chick]

Yay...It's been a long wait for you for this to happen. Hope the weather gets better for you soon. We are in the same boat -weatherwise- in MI.

[Mr. Bloom]

Yea! Let me know when you're ready to come down here for some hill repeats

[Catrin]

Yea! Let me know when you're ready to come down here for some hill repeats

I certainly will, probably the last part of May. In the end I don't know how much faster this bike will be - the frame is closer to a rigid mountain bike than a road bike, but it should work well in the hills I would LIKE to ride in the Brown County Hill Challenge this fall, but we will see!

[indysteel]

Cool beans, Catrin. Congrats on your maiden voyage! I'm sure you'll be fast friends.

One point of clarification: Does the frame itself, i.e., before being built up, weigh 10.5 pounds? I'm not aware of any bike--carbon, Ti, aluminum or steel--that weighs as little as 10.5 pounds fully built, even one as little as yours. Just curious!
ETA. Nevermind my question about weight. I reread your post. My reading comprehension is WAY off!

[Catrin]

For clarification sake, my Gunnar weighs 24.5 pounds fully built