mconlonx: that looks excellent!
It was in my truck in the apt in town, about 1/4 mi away from the shop, so I backpacked parts in with me, swapped things out at work (slow day), and took a longer way home. Front shifting is reversed, which led to much hilarity on a short, steep hill...
I have yet to use it on my regular commute, but so far, love it. Totally overly impressed with my cable stop problem solving/kludge. I actually did notice the extra weight, hefting it around, but riding it on the streets, the extra weight was negligible, and the lower/higher gearing appreciated, more than makes up for any extra weight.
There's this one hill on the bus to office end of my commute where I wished for lower gears getting to the bus; wished for higher gears doing the reverse commute. No real big deal, could absolutely live with the stock 7sp gearing for what I'm using it for, but now I'll have better gearing at the extremes.
I believe Bruce Metras told me that he regularly only used the 3sp shifter for a majority of his travels with a Dual Drive system. And BTW, thanks for the Birdy
and the Dual Drive setup, Bruce!
Motivation is change of location, my 6mi commute to the bus station will change to a 12 mi ride to the bus with the move from one town to a couple towns over. More, steeper hills involved. Co-worker (boss) at the shop, observing work going down on the bike, asked if I was going to ride this 12 mi, across the state border to do the bike bus bike commute -- "Well yeah, that's partly why I'm rigging this up now." Duh.
He and motorhead friend expressed incredulousness. He's about my height so I said, Take it for a ride... Not that he's running out to get a Birdy or a folder, but he was duly impressed with the handling and gearing on the bike, acknowledged that it might be OK-ish for the interstate commute.
No, it will rock.