That's Perty!

Congrats on the new bike.


As you I started with a hybrid style bike and went to a road bike (touring in my case). NO comparison. The Road bike is just faster with less effort. Being able to get in the drops when fighting a head wind is a HUGE reduction in effort over a upright seating position.

I have the Super tourist on my main rider and have mixed feelings about it. I wanted the ability to run my MTX trunk with panniers (Novara transfers) and while it does work the panniers work (due to the way they attach) a little better on the Explorer. To fit the ST I had to change the mounting spacing so I cant easily swap back and forth to the two bike I have that have the explorer.

Congrats on the new bike. Nice looking bike. I started commuting to work few weeks ago with my old hard tail MTB and after 2 weeks decided to purchased a road bike ( Specialized Ellez). I'll switch to my MTB for commuting when the weather starts to get rough.

Yea I did turn them down so they are parallel with the top tube. I'm funny about lines. I got the Blackberry Storm bike mount on line from Amazon. I have had it since about April and couldn't be more pleased with it. The bike has been down a few times and the Blackberry stayed right in place. I use it to listen to Pandora with Bluetooth headphones on my commutes. The GPS map has been pretty handy too at times. It is kinda handy to have the screen on the bike for satellite access
yes you are correct sir.

Congratulations. I believe it's a natural progression to go from a hybrid to eventually a road bike (drop bar bike). I'm planning on purchasing my first touring bike before the end of the year.