Geez MD Peeps, you've put 3 more pages of posts up and I've only been gone one weekend.

But oh, what a weekend it was: Me and Betty headed down to Coho central (Franklinville, NC). Stopped in for a quick hello to Charles(the builder) and Nina on sunday, spent the night at Days Inn nearby and showed up with all my parts to begin build up Monday AM. Beautiful weather (but you all had it too) the whole day. There was only one hitch- the 7-speed cassette was a bit too small for the hub body. Charles called up to a great shop in Greensboro (Cycles de Oro) who had a 4.5mm spacer and an hour and a half later I had it good to go.

We took a short ride around the neighborhood Monday evening before sundown. Charles and Nina kindly offered to let me sleep at their place and knowing that I'd be able to do a longer ride on tuesday, I accepted. The next morning, Charles on his blue Paisano and I on the new Coho roadie rolled through Randolf county and all of it's farms and forests. This countryside is a perfect bike tester- always rolling, but nothing sharply steep and very little traffic.

The Coho is impressive. Immediately I noticed how perfectly it fit me. It is smooth and still a good accelerator. I'll give a more thorough and more thoughtful review with more riding and more writing later. I will add though that I'm pleased with the choices I made on parts. The Nitto Classic bars are a great change from the Rando bars on the Kogswell. They are narrower and flat across the tops. So far, I'm loving the drivetrain and the Mavic wheels with the Grand Bois 28's are light and quick.

The pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/2797683...ed/2009/04/29/