August 25th, 2018 ----------------- As planned, today I took a "first real test ride". I didn't want to go too far, or fast, or hard, as the bike has very, very few miles on it at this point and early toothing problems are still a very real possibility and I didn't want to get stranded or hurt. This turned out to be a wise idea because, after about 30 or 40 minutes, I noticed that my left crank had started to work its way loose. This should be a quick and easy fix at the co-op tomorrow, but for now it means that I'm not doing any further riding. That issue aside, I was extremely happy with how the bike performed! I rode up and down my nearest hill a few times, along a section of cobbled street, and along some gravel trails, and didn't encounter any obvious problems. As I've mentioned previously, the bike just feels strangely easy to ride, like I have to put less effort into pedalling than I am used to. I'm very happy with the front brake performance, it's much beter than my other bike, which is great. My handlebars are currently bare, i.e. in want of tape. I did find that I definitely noticed this in my hands, and this can only be ascribed to the different posture I have on this bike. I was surprised by the extent of the change. On my other bike, I am more or less 90 degrees bolt upright, and the handlebars have black rubber grips like an old three speed. I have been on ~3 hour rides on this bike and had not the slightest inkling of hand discomfort at all. On the Franken-Peugeot I still want a mostly upright position, but wanted to experiment with a little bit of a forward lean, as having a slightly arched back apparently makes occasional bumps and things more comfortable, because an arched back flexes somewhat like a spring, or so people who do long tours say. Since I want to use this bike for longer rides this sounds like it might be something worth taking into account, more so than the usual stuff about "getting aero". I tried to glance at my reflection in windows I rode past to judge how upright I was. More upright than 45 degrees, that is for sure, but perhaps not as much as 67.5. In other words, leaned forward more than a quarter of the way, but not half the way. I would not have expeted this to make such a difference in the amount of weight my hands have to bear, but apparently it did. Maybe with good bar tape, this will be just fine. I didn't notice any discomfort in my back or neck, and didn't feel like my visibility was substantially impaired. I may still tinker with the bar height, but not by much. Because of the hand discomfort, I did experiment with changing my hand position around on the bars during the ride, which is something else people make a big deal about on long rides. Moustache bars offer something like 3 hand positions[1]. On my bars, there is not much difference between them at all in terms of how the rest of my body is positioned, but each position is relatively comfortable and offers quick enough access to the brakes. The saddle is sprung, which is a first for me. On the whole I have found it pretty comfortable. On an unpaved surface, I did once hit a series of small bumps with just the right timing to induce some resonance and ended up bouncing quite a bit. This was not uncomfortable as such, just not something I'm used to. These tires (32mm front, 35mm rear) are the narrowest I've ever ridden, although not by a large margin (my other bike has 37mm front and rear). I do kind of feel like I can feel a difference on gravel, but otherwise it's fine. With single speed bikes it's very easy to get obsessed with the gear ratio, since it's about the only thing there is to tweak drivetrain-wise. This may still happen to me, but I think my first stab (a ratio of 42:18, or 2.33, translating to 63.4 gear inches on a 622x35 rear tire) is pretty good for me right now. I can pretty easily climb the hill I encounter most frequently on quick grocery store visits, without having to stand up out of the saddle, but I also haven't yet felt terribly speed limited. This might happen when I try a longer journey on a paved bike path. My gearing is just a little lower than Sheldon Brown's recommendation for general street use ("a 42 tooth chainring with a 16 or 17 tooth sprocket" [2]), but it's also just a little higher than the "road mode" gearing of Rivendell's discontinued Quickbeam (which was 40:18), so it seems like I'm definitely somewhere close to the general opinions of people I trust. As I said, all in all, I'm very happy with the bike and hope I can get the crank sorted easily tomorrow. [1] https://www.sheldonbrown.com/deakins/handlebars.html [2] https://sheldonbrown.com/singlespeed.html