As I posted before, I ordered the wrong front derailleur so my first few rides on the new bike were all in granny as that's where the chain settled. Not a big deal, but not ideal either.
I just moved the 100mm stem off my old bike onto this bike when I built it. I never felt like the old bike (medium) was cramped at all, and I'm sure some of that had to do with the relatively long stem. The long stem also meant the steering was somewhat slow - again not something I noticed with the old bike.
The new bike (large) was missing some of the snappiness I remembered from the demo bike, I put a 70mm stem on (stolen from Disch's bike) and the snappiness was back, although my brain needs a little retraining - I hit more trees with my bars at Hale on Wednesday night in one ride than I would normally hit in a whole season of riding. By the time we got to the Punisher I was starting to get the hang of it.
I bought a 70mm stem of my own (from Storrs Cycle - apparently the only bike shop in CT that actually stocks anything), I got the front derailleur working perfectly (another learning experience for me). So this weekend should be the first rides where I can get used to the new bike. I got it in the air a few times on Wednesday and it definitely lands with more authority than the old RIP.
So far, I'm very happy, will be ecstatic after this weekend, I expect. I guess in the back of my mind I was thinking the transition from the old RIP to the new one would be seamless, like riding the same bike, its not. Like any new bike I have to get comfortable on it and probably do a bit more tweaking to get things perfect.
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