I tend to somewhat lose interest in riding a bit after a really big event. Still really obsessed with bikes and bike culture but after a big ride I just don't want to sit on the saddle for a long time.
I rode a 200K at the first weekend of June, and more or less took the rest of the month off from the bike. Getting a cold on the first week of July didn't help much either.
But in that time I did pick up a new frameset and built it up. I took my Tempo back to the stock 700c wheels and 52/40 x 13/24 gearing, and put the 650b wheels, fenders, and triple crank on to my new ride, a 60cm Velo Orange Polyvalent MKIII.
I got out for 15 miles last night to a local forest preserve. Really pleased at how it rides so far, very stable and comfortable. It's definitely not a race bike, but it is still reasonably lively and fun to ride. This is my first experience with a true low-trail geometry, with 38mm tires trail calculates to 36mm. Overall, it does feel very stable and resistant to inputs from rider weight shifting. I found that it rode hands off incredibly well. There aren't many instances where I can evaluate high-speed handling, but over a couple of fast corners I did notice that the bike wanted to climb to the outside of the turn if you let it happen, just like I had read that low-trail geometry tends to do. But the bike responds well to corrections and I can't see myself disliking the handling.
Really looking forward to getting a rack and bag on the front of this thing to see how that feels.
The real highlight of the night was the green walls of corn topped with gold that I rode along all night.
