Hi all

Thank you for all your considered and detailed replies, it was really helpful to get replies from the cyclists perspective. In the end I've decided to put a few more Euro into the bike and buy a slightly higher level version with a triple, that seems to be the smartest option as a newbie. Otherwise I'm really not going to understand what I've got until I put it to the test, which will be too late.

I think this thread will be useful for some other people judging by the number of searches on this topic on the web!