Alright, to anyone still following my (not so) exciting saga, my friend Paul helped me tinker with some bits on this, including new bars, hoods, brakes, pedals, stem, cables/housing.

I got it out on a 6 mile spin over lunch and in general, things felt great. The bike is light and lively without being too twitchy. It was a fun ride. As you can see, I'm easing into the drop bar posture with a very upright stem. I imagine this will drop a bit as I get used to it.

Some thoughts as I get used to it:

• I now know the feeling of buzz from the road, something I don't generally feel on my Rat Trap Pass Tires. I'm excited at the possibility of wider tires in light of that but...
• I'm started to feel scared of converting to 650b based on some comments I've seen in the thread. I found a nice-looking wheelset for just over $200 and part of me wants to pull the trigger but another part of me is worried it won't deliver what I hope it will, or it may compromise the ride in unforeseen ways. I think I'd feel better about pulling the trigger if I was certain the 650b's could move to another bike in the future, but not sure how knowable that is?
• If this is my rando candidate, I'm not sure that it qualifies as very low trail? Without a bag at the moment, steering feels smooth, perhaps even a bit slow to respond. Unsure how it would feel with a front load.
• I still feel pain in my neck from being in a forward posture and looking up to see my surroundings throughout the ride. I may be doing something wrong, it may be working unfamiliar muscles, or I may have a bad fit. Very open to input here.