400 mile report:

Hit the 400 mile mark on the bike over the weekend. Last wednesday i was "sick" from work and took advantage of the nice weather headed out for a long ride and ended up crossing the half century mark. Averaged 16mph with 1200' of elevation gain. had to stop a couple times at the convenient stores to top off water bottles. It was a fun ride, paced myself well early on and really only the last 5ish miles did i start to hit the wall.

Last Saturday did a nice 40 mile 1000' elevation coastal loop group ride which was held at a moderate pace with the local club, 16.5mph average speed.

Sunday did a recovery ride of 20 miles and even though I wasn't pushing it cruised along right at 16.2mph decided to finally use the mid chainring for some climbing (was afraid on my long ride and group ride that the shifting would act up but it didn't at all) that does seem to help out a bit on the longer climbs. though my "big" ring on that bike is only 48T and putting it down onto the mid range back cogs can climb most hills without issue with that gearing.

After the ride I cleaned off the chain and lubed it back up and noticed the shifting had gotten even smoother, the small chainring was still very tough or impossible to use even after getting it back from the shop. I should say when i first brought it home it shifted fine into it so i assume it was a dirty drive train preventing smooth shifting, either way problem seems solved for now.

Overall, still happy with the bike. the cost to fun ratio is a tremendous value. If I ever plan on racing (very unlikely) I know I couldn't keep up but for group rides and solo rides i get a great workout and can average a decent pace. I think pushing a hard 20mph pace for an hour is possible, especially once I replace those heavy wide tires. Beyond that i would have to get a lighter, better equipped bike.

I certainly haven't died, or had any catastrophic failures as some people have tried to warn me about would happen with a cheap store bike...