The bike rides very well and I like how it handles, but it will take some getting used to after years riding a heavy mountain bike. The skinnier 700 wheels are, surprisingly, not that big a deal for me.


The two things that are the most difficult for me to adapt to are the brake levers and the shifters.

The location of the brifters... this is new to me. The Raleigh I rode in the 80's had brake levers on the drops and on the hoods. I honestly can't remember where the shifter was.


The rear rack that came with the Randonee is a very sturdy, handsome rack. I still prefer the Tubus LOCC from my old bike, and I'm going to try to put that on the new bike. (I'll need to get a few adapter dookhickeys to install it.)


When I bought this Tubus Tara front rack for the mountain bike, it was sized to fit 26" MTB wheels. Wayne from The Touring Store suggested I try to fit my Tara and LOCC racks to the new bike. The Tara fit on very well!




I've always used plain platform pedals in the past. I'd assumed the cages would be the first thing I pulled off when I got the bike home, but I'm kinda diggin' them. I may replace them with straps, but I'm going to give these a chance.




This is the cleanest drivetrain I've ever had in this house.




After 20 years away from them, I forgot how much I liked drop bars. For all their faults - and they have many - the sheer number of hand positions possible is amazing. Does the GPS mean this isn't really a road bike?



This is the first modification I made to the bike. the stock saddle is pretty good, but this one is more comfortable so far. Time will tell, since I don't even have 10 miles on the bike yet.



a quickr pickr post

Edit: The last pic was in here twice, I snipped it out.