Posted 2/7/03

Hi,
Thanks for a great machine, it is a world apart from the old greenspeed. We've had a couple of rides now, a 100k Audax on Sunday in the lanes around haldon hill and the coast around dawlish, and a 50k training ride last night around the tamar valley and Kit Hill.
Only one minor problem on sunday, the lower (long) chain tube was too far forward and caused some chain suck changing rings, pushed it back and ok now. May have displaced it ourselves perhaps.
Managed to ground it at the top of a concrete ramp on a cycle path in Exeter, much to Linda's consternation and my amusement. No damage, just less paint (lighter).
Front light bracket is fine, had lights on last night and no light onto feet, thanks.
Gearing seems to cope with most things without the hub gears (though I doubt we could cope with much luggage uphill). Bottom is low enough for everything so far, even if we have to work a bit hard, but the idea was to get up at a reasonable speed, and we were only just losing ground to the "uprights" a little on sunday. Top is ok now that Linda is learning to spin a bit more. I sometimes ride fixed so am more used to it, Linda is ok up to about 29mph now and after that we are happy to freewheel.
Handling wise there is a definite outward drift at the rear on fast bends, probably not enough weight in the stoker and luggage perhaps, combined with a bit of flexing on the swinging arm? Whatever, it is not a problem, it hasn't got out of hand, the excellent steering geometry keeps it under control.
Got a bit of a problem with the headrest on my seat, the hole for the ponytail allows it to flex too much and it is too bouncy. In retrospect I didn't actually need a hole, since I don't put what hair I have left through it, I just needed a hollow in the foam padding to accomodate the 'knot'. Is there any chance of a plain one that I can customise myself?
Whilst I'm on the scrounge, we have put the spare bits, pump for the shock, etc, in a nice new black plastic box. It looks very bare and would benefit from having a Trice and/or ICE sticker on it!
Finally we can now reveal that the reason for going for suspension was nothing to do with comfort, it was to stop the champagne from getting shaken up!
Cheers, Mike.