rawland.

Well. I did it. I went for a ride. Thankfully I made it home before the hail/sleet that was stinging my face turned into actual rain. So, that was ok. Just went out to the caribou in Wayzata, which was surprisingly busy. Lot's of people in there.

Well. I have to preface this with, my legs are very sore from the two days of running I have done. No running today, but legs still don't like me. So, I felt like I was riding to survive the ride, not to break any PR's. I made it out there in less than an hour, though. So maybe I'm actually not doing so badly.

I have to say, I REALLY like this bike. I've never ridden White Industries cranks, so I don't know if they're crazy stiff or anything, and the wheels are 32 hole W.I. hubs to Velocity Dyads. End up being pretty light, although I am almost positive they're not butted spokes. Let's just say that I didn't expect them to be super stiff. So, that means that the frame is surprisingly stout. I didn't notice any more movement below me (even out of the saddle) than I do on my bike (06 Alan Unicross). Everything worked well. I did notice that my back and hands did better on this ride than they usually do on my bikes. Could that be due to the higher bars (which I've complained about) or maybe that D/A hoods are in fact better, ergonomically speaking, than sram hoods? Could be. I don't want to guess, though.

What it boils down to is that this frame works. If it is in fact 4130 cromo, I'm impressed, because it sure doesn't ride like it. I will say again that I really like it. Not a lot of road buzz (even with 65psi in the Speedmax tires). I only took it off road for a second, and I shouldn't have. I knew it would be less than satisfactory. As I JUST mentioned, the tires are WAY overinflated. I'll get back to it and do a real test off road soon, assuming I can get another couple hours of decent weather before saturday. Otherwise, saturday will be the test.

If Rawland ever decided to release this as a singlespeed frameset, I'd be sold in a heartbeat. And that is only because I am not in the market for a new geared cross bike. If I were, however, looking for a great steel cross frame, this would be it.

The only thing that I am not sold on is the top tube. It's round. They didn't have time to have the prototype ovalized. It will be on production models.

These guys designed and made a great product. I'd like to ride it harder on the road when I'm both feeling better, and have different tires on. I just cannot bring myself to trust the Ritcheys around fast turns. I've washed out one to many times with them to really push them.