Thanks for the good vibes. This got quite a lot of attention on its maiden voyage over the weekend.

Mrs. Trotsky broke her wrist a couple months back on a ride when she crashed during a "clipless moment," so this was her first ride back in some time, and her first ride on this bike with this setup. She loved it.

I think we have all had some difficulty setting up bikes for less serious riders, so I was trying to address some of those considerations.

1. Mrs. Trotsky has a lot of back issues from a surgery and sitting up straighter is better. I finally convinced her to go with upright bars over drops, and this went over really well. Albatross is a great bar. Plus bar end shifter makes it really easy to reach and shift.

2. Mrs. Trotsky also hates multiple chainrings and "gear theory." I had used a 1x drivetrain in a cross bike setup before and thought it would be perfect. This bike sees mostly multi-use path duty, so 42/11-32 covers all the essential range. Narrow/wide chainrings are a godsend for this sort of setup, especially when used without a clutch derailleur.