A picture of his first, and a story about his last.

The agreement was; We design a bike that would put a smile on his face like the one he had with his first bike.

I think we hit the mark.

Well, the beautiful Sunday weather yesterday tipped the scales and I simply could not resist the opportunity to give my new bike its inauguration. Man, that is one sweet machine! Everything I would hope for and more. Not only does it fit well as was to be expected, but it is amazingly responsive. One really gets the true sense that there is absolutely no wasted energy in this bike. Anything put into the drivetrain is directly and efficiently translated into rotational motion of the wheels. Nothing gets wasted in flex or springiness of the frame or any components. Shifting is smooth and seamless, although it will admittedly take me some time to get used to the lever shifters. To wit, on more than one occasion, I found myself going in the wrong direction with my shift. One thing I did start to do as I got more comfortable, was double lever shift (for example - depressing the buttons on both shifters simultaneously to drop to the small chainring and smaller cogs at the same time, thus getting into a lower gear at the step-over more quickly - this worked beautifully in the sense that this multi- and simultaneous shift was virtually un-noticeable in the peddling legs - good ol' Campy! Also, the minimal toe overlap you designed in is very nice compared the bigger problem encountered with the shop Alaris that I tested. The roll of the tires is really nice too. I can feel the softer ride due to the width, but it does not feel mushy at all and the bike coasts VERY well. Riding up on the bars or down on the drops were both very comfortable. I could spend a lot of time on this machine without feeling it, I am sure.

On my ride, I was actually nicely treated with an initial northerly wind on my way out, thus making my initial out on Seminole a tailwind joyride (I think I was averaging about 26+ mph going out!). Of course I had to pay for this big time on the return, but oh well.

Bottom line --- I am not worthy.......but I'll take it anyway!

Thanks so much for all your help on bringing this to pass. I will be in for a tune-up once I hit about 200 miles this season. Is the tune-up generally a "wait while we do it" kind of thing, or will you need the bike for a longer stay? The reason I ask is that if it can be done while I wait, then I'd rather just ride it over to your shop. You can take a picture for the folks at Seven then too.