Thanks for all the encouragement! I took it for another 4 mile spin this morning, and will be doing a 9 mile ride this evening with a half-weight load (one I can pile on top of the rack if I have any issues with clearance & heel strikes), including my challenging hill. If all that goes well and all my clearances are good, I'll load up and do the full commute on Monday. I do find I'm going faster and need to improve my cornering, and I've never had disc brakes before, so trying to feel those out before getting any real weight on the bike. I'm feeling a lot more positive about riding, which is worth the costs. A friend has asked to buy the Trek 7100 as-is for a bike path/greenway casual ride.