First Ride

Friday afternoon Menlo Velo called me and said something like, "One mixte, ready to ride." The owner told me he had taken it for a short test ride and concluded, "it feels like a fast bike" and "it rides nicely" and "when you ping the tubes, it has a nice sound."

I'm really pleased with the overall appearance of the mixte - it is well proportioned, the powder coat has a nice gloss to it, looks better in person than in the photographs. By the way, if you click on the picture a larger version is displayed.

I showed the mixte to my neighbor who said something like, "looks like my old Trek, but nicer." The top and down tubes are "new old" tubes - they're the old standard diameter tubes which are small by modern standards, they give the bike a more graceful look I think. The tires are fairly "fat" 28C and there is plenty of clearance for larger tires, please check the Google group (http://groups.google.com/group/furrybluecycles) for additional photos. Before I commission a production run I'll try fatter tires and fenders to make sure all the clearances are as promised.

Anyway, Saturday I put a Brooks B17 on it and fiddled around a bit with the position of the bar ends, and went for a nice ride into Los Altos Hills. I'll want to experiment more with the handlebars and so on (I usually ride wider Albatross), but it's a great riding bike.

I also wanted my wife (she's about 5' 4") to test ride the bike, but she sprained her foot Saturday afternoon and so I'll have to wait a bit to get a woman's perspective.