Scott, Following up on the report I gave you Saturday, I took the new bike out for a century yesterday. Did BG/Sammamish River Trail to Redmond, Novelty Hill, Snoqualmie and back to my house in West Seattle via Issaquah/Mercer Island.
This enabled me to test the bike on streets, open road, paved trails (with lots of root heave), a couple of really good descents and some nice climbs.
The fit is dead on and the bike is very comfortable. The frame and tires take care of all but the very roughest pavement.
It definitely does better on fast descents with a front load than the S3. The S3 had a tendency to shimmy even with a smallish front bag on the handlebars—something that doesn’t happen when I ride it without the bag.
There is a little wheel flop at low speeds, but it is not bad. I think the trade off to get rid of the low speed wheel flop would probably make the bike not handle as well at higher speeds. I had the bag loaded pretty heavily as I stripped off layers over the course of the day and didn’t have a problem on the climbs. I am very happy with the way it rides.
I am glad I went with the rack mounted French bag instead of a large handlebar mount bag. I think the low mount off the bars has less of an adverse affect on handling and it is nice to have the bars completely clear as it opens up more hand positions.
The light mount on the rack is great.
As expected, I already lost the pin for the decaleur. The bag stays in place without it and is rock solid. My only issue with the rack is that I wish the upright for the loop and decaleur was perfectly parallel instead of having a bulge in it. It is a small detail, but mounting and removing the bag would be a lot easier if it were not necessary to force it past the bulge in the uprights.
I will probably bring it by for minor adjustments on Thursday. The only issue I’ve had so far is throwing the chain off the small ring on downshifts.
And of course, it is absolutely gorgeous. It is special to ride such a beautiful bike knowing that it is the one and only on the road. How cool is that?
