The First Ride...

It was a perfect day for a bike commute. I had added my rack to the bike so I could carry a trunk and pannier, added my light, put on my pedals, guestimated my seat height by measuring my bike fit from my Bianchi and was (finally) ready to ride.

And?

I looooove Ginger the bike.

It's just a comfortable fit and so easy to go uphill compared to my mountain bike. I don't think the new bike is all that much lighter than my mountain commuter either. Ginger even compares favorably to my road bike on this issue. One of the complaints about my road bike is a bit too flexible when you are out of the saddle climbing and I have noticed that. I tend to climb hills seated more often because of this reason. It is much more comfortable being out of the saddle climbing on Ginger; it's more solid feeling and gives me the feeling of more power. The mountain bike, of course, had front shocks so being out of the saddle climbing was just a waste of energy and I never did it if I could help it.

I go over some gnarly pavement in the downtown area and I was worried about that feeling rough when on the new bike. The mountain bike has wider tires and a front shock which does help with that. No worries! Ginger handled it just fine.

With my pannier on my mountain bike, I would sometimes hit my heel on the pannier when starting off. I think the wider wheel base of Ginger stops that from happening which is nice. I'd often be surprised by that when on my mountain bike. Surprise and bicycling don't go all that well together in my experience.

Stopping power was phenomenal. I was really pleased and think maybe I need to switch out brake pads on my road bike.

The ride home seemed so much easier! The commute home is mostly uphill for me so it just was so nice to feel like I was flying up the hills.

It was a perfectly dry day but I am (maybe) looking forward to how the fenders work!

What needs to be tweaked?

The handlebars seem very large to me and I have not measured the difference between the road bike and Ginger. This could be because the handlebars are up high right now as Free Range Cycles does not cut the downtube down to size until the bike is sold. I did not want that cut until I'd had a chance to ride for a bit. I will bring the handlebars down a bit and that will change the large feeling for the better I suspect. I really like being in the drops on the new bike too. The relaxed angle is so comfortable.

Still need to tweak seat height a bit and figure out if I can get the seat level. It tips forward just a bit right now and I don't think that's adjustable.