I'm just back from a 4-day 240km tour in south-western Victoria, with me on my Birdy and SWMBO on her Reach.
Very impressed. we stayed in accommodation for this tour so didn't carry camping gear. We each had 2 small panniers. My stuff was only a scanty 7kg, including the panniers.
The extra weight of the panniers on the frame made the ride even smoother. It felt like I was riding on soft balloon tires.
The Alivio gear shifting is wearing out far more rapidly than I expected. When new, it worked just fine. Now at 1600km, I have to push the shifter lever way past the click point to get the gear to engage. It works best if I downshift 2 clicks and then upshift 1 - that gives me a guaranteed shift. A single click just results in a grinding noise. If I adjust the shifter to give a guaranteed downshift, then it won't upshift. The shifter seems to have changed its pull ratio.
