Thanks for that, Ong. I'll see if working them in improves them.
As for the bags, they do work surprisingly well, though with only two it feels somewhat under capacity. That said, it is handy that I can just take two if I want, and have my other daughter on the rack as well. With continuous bags, she'd have her legs hanging over them (mulling it over in my brain, though, big bags may be advantagious, as they'd protect her legs from spray in the rain) I do also like the fact that they open with a simple clip at the front and thenconcertena out into a nice big bucket size. I found today that I tended to simply put whatever in there then clip it back up again, from keys, to wallet and phone, to a bag full of shopping (Lefe bier - how civilised). It was rainy, though not pouring down, and I didn;t notice any ingress of water, though if one was in a real downpour, they'd soon start holding water, as, and this does seem to be a design flaw, there is no drain hole. I'll no doubt put one in myself, but it should really be there in the first place, especially in the UK.
Here's a pic of the new bags (and new grips and front mudguard) on the 09 model
Next year's bags look substantially better, and I hope they can be ordered as extras, but for the time being, the two Kona bags and my big courier bag work well to cart what I want to need.
Now, it's just the foot rack. My brain's still ticking over...