HI,
Not sure if its adrenalin or what we had some heavy winds 15-20 knot with gust, but I took her out, and tried to ride a little, the chain kept hopping, went back the LBS and said whats up they showed me how to measure a new chain on the bike lowest gear smallest ring and so on and how the derailer shoould look.
Went put on a new chain, they had crankbrother on sale so I bought pedals too, I feel at ease with them compaired to the look pedal its harder to hook up being they always seem to flip over when you unclip and you need to spin them over and push in. My foot sliped off a couple times and that scares me I almost dropped the bike. while pushing off, and with me learning to ride on the road I don't want to crash into a cage. With the crank brothers you can pedal a couple strokes before you need to worry about clippin. and they can clip on both sides or not it dosen't effect Any whooo the bike felt so good it seemed so much easier and faster. Geeze I 'll be going average of 18 the first day. versus 14 on the mountian.
Another thing I noticed is the pedals seem to be located in more powerful location to your leg versus the mountian that you have to practically stand on to pull off in the wind. adn the faster you pedal the easier it get's where the mountian seepms to have a very narrow power range and you run out of gears the faster you go if you jump up a chain ring its to large for me. and your cross chaining you can tell it feels a little tight..

Its felt like it was ridding on rails...Iam hooked on Roadie bikes for sure, and only spent a couple hundred before the mods.. hehe Now to build that motor for power and endurance, look out you roadies I 'll be back..

DOug