Bike was delivered this morning. The carrier shipped it by air from Western Australia, which is just over 2100 miles to Victoria at no extra cost due to a lack of road freight in this direction.
A quick ride with the standard bars confirmed I needed a higher set of bars so I pulled the Truetorch cook replicas from my Avenger. These bars are about 2 inches higher and have more back sweep. They are expensive but super light and the build quality is beautiful.
I pumped the tyres to 60psi and took an hour off work for a quick dash around town. This thing is definitely FAST. It feels similar to my 2012 Kos in response when pedalling likely due to the similarly sized short chainstay. The 29" wheels and slick tyres roll better than anything else I've experienced and the 10 closely spaced gears are a dream. The hydraulic disc brakes have plenty of bite and are very progressive. I was concerned the thickslick tyres may be fragile but it seem the rubber on the contact patch is much thicker than usual. The ride is harsher than that of a typical steel bike but not unbearable. No real gripes except the padded seat which I will probably swap for one of the others from my fleet.
As I said in an earlier post I was lucky to find one as the local distributor has dropped the Fast Ripper from the Oz range. Its my first new bike in years and one I am sure will get plenty of use, particularly for those longer rides once winter is over.
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