Our temps finally dropped below 100 and I took out the DT to put some more time on it. I made sure I got prior “permission” from my son to ride his bike. I asked him this past weekend if he minded if I rode it from time to time.

I went out on about a nice 10 mile ride. Temps in the mid 80’s and some newly paved bike paths. The more I ride it the more I like it. This bike is eerily silent while you are pedaling. Tires don’t make noise, hug doesn’t make noise and you scare the bejeezus out of people if you don’t alert them before you come up on them.

As expected some of my initial impressions are reinforced and others have changed somewhat. I really am enjoying the SA hub but still don’t like the shift effort too much. The hubs biggest jumps being 1st to 2nd and 7th to 8th really seem well thought out for my riding. I love having those middle gears more tightly spaced.

Riding it on some bigger hills reinforced it really needs the gearing lowered. I could still climb most of the hills I needed to but I needed to get out of the saddle to climb one of them since first gear is so tall. This was the first time I got out of the saddle and really pushed on the pedals and mostly sprinted up the hill. Everything felt very tight. I was pretty shocked. I’ll see how it is in a few hundred miles but so far it rates very highly on this test since I am not a small guy nor am I a weak rider!

Going down the hills 8th gear was too talk to be very useful. In reality I could spin this gear fast enough going downhill to still be pedaling in excess of 30 mph. This is just way to tall for the purpose of this bike. I should have another sprocket to try pretty soon. Glad to say the brakes were quite impressive. They look like an upgrade over the past ones too and they weren’t bad either.

One aspect of the bike that impressed me more than the first few rides was the front fork. Even when I was off the newly paved paths I noticed that it does a better job than I initially thought it did. I carefully watched its movement over the bumps and it rarely bottomed out with me on it yet did a good job on most hits to be worth having. I actually could feel the difference between the front and the rear when I hit bumps.

Hitting bumps actually allowed me to feel the sprung seat actually work as well. It noticeably had an effect on smoothing out the road. This was a big plus. It is not a junky seat much to my continued surprise. Downside for me is I need a longer nose and a narrower width for how I like my bar to seat relationship. IF you sit more upright then you will like this seat more. If you like your bars LOWER than your seat, start shopping now. Speaking of bars the adjustable bars are great. The not only go up and down but they have an adjustable stem that allows you to very the angle of them as well.

Tires seemed to work well so far but not super efficient. I’d look for something better personally when these wear out. This doesn’t appear to be anytime soon. I’d like an excuse to toss them but I can’t justify throwing something still serviceable away. Maybe I am a little bit spoiled by my Schwalbe and Scorchers but I miss the speed AND good ride of these tires. Don’t get me wrong, they aren’t garbage but once you try something better you’ll know what I mean. For the target market of this bike they are a reasonable choice and better than last years tires. At high speeds they didn’t vibrate or handle bad. Actually high speed handling was excellent. I don’t have a cyclometer on it but I would guess I was in the mid to low 30 mph range down the hill and the bike felt quite stable.

Last thing to note is the grips. Actually I shouldn’t write what I feel about the grips. Let’s just say my words would border on expletives. There are just slightly better than gripping the metal handlebar. I came back from my ride and my hands hurt for the first time in a long time. Fortunately they aren’t expensive to replace and I will do some ASAP. I also noticed that the VIIIH didn’t come with a bell like my last DTs did. Maybe an oversight or maybe no longer standard equipment. As quiet as this bike is you really need one.

So far no buyer’s remorse has set in. Quite the opposite as my appreciation for it has grown. So far the only real upgrades it MUST have in my opinion are lower gearing, better grips, front fender and a narrower seat (this one you may not need). Tire would be nice but not 100% necessary.