royalflash

I rode the bike for the first time properly today (not far though yet-just commuted to work). A nice ride and it felt quite fast. The bike feels quite long compared to riding a 26 inch wheel bike (if you have to carry our bike up narrow stairs every day this might be important to you) and not quite as sure footed when manouvering over obstacles, e.g. kerbs, since the tyres are quite narrow compared to those on my other 26 inch wheeled bikes.

The brake performance was adequate but I would not say that they are the most powerful disc brakes I have used. Maybe they will improve as the pads bed in. More important for me with disc brakes though is reliability. So we will see how they perform in the longer haul.

The twist grip gear change was not quite as good as I expected as with one twist you can only change about three gears at once. So you need to do quit a bit of twisting sometimes to slow down particularly. Also it would have been nice if the gear numbers had been highlighed a bit more on the grip in a different coulour as unless you are cycling in bright sunlight you can't tell what gear you are in. And with the Rohloff of course you cannot even look down at the cassette for a clue.

There was some Rohloff whirring noise in the lower gears as has also been reported elsewhere.

I put another SKS clip-on type mudguard (fender) on the front. I found that they do an adapter that zip ties onto the fork specifically for use with Cannondale forks due to the lack of a recess in the fork crown. I might try a set of real mudguards later but these will be Ok for start.

One thing I forgot to mention before is that the handlebar if it falls round can hit the top tube. It is a good idea to put some tape on as protection here.

It really needs a Schmidt hub dynamo and maybe a carrier and it would the ultimate non-snow/ice commuter I would say.

Anyway I will keep you updated. Happy commuting.