Inaugural Shopping Trip

Having a day off from the coalface I decided to take my first run to do a shop with the GR8. I could have done a bigger shop but was quite limited to how much I could fit in my bag. Really have to get something sorted, a box or a basket, for the front carrier to open up a whole new world of opportunity for carbon nuetral shopping.

This was also my real first opportunity to take the bike for a proper test ride without time constraints. The first thing that I noticed was that as I am sitting higher up and going relatively slowly, I have more time to look about me and enjoy the ride. I also feel much safer and more aware of the trafic around about me and I think that I was also more visible to them as I was given lots of space when being passed. Navigating junctions is also much easier as I can plant my feet on the ground while still in the saddle, not having to worry about unclipping myself. She is super smooth and just trundles along like a freight train, takes a bit to get her going but when once moving, she glides effortlessly. Being able to ride in jeans and a jumper is also fantastic - no need to look like a MAMIL when wandering about Tesco!

So the elephant in the room - hills. Let's face it, this style of bike is quite at home in the flatness of the Netherlands so how does something that weighs about as much as my smart car perform when the gradient goes up? Much better than you would think and having the 8 speed Nexus hub certainly helps. I am not going to win any race but it goes where you point it and off it goes at a lesuirly pace. The hardest thing for me is to resist the urge to get out of the saddle to climb which I would do on my other bikes - you just have to resign yourself to the fact that you are in the climb for the long hawl.

All in all a great addition to my bike stable - it is a utility bike and not a lesuire bike. It is designed to do a job, whether that be getting me to my work carrying my laptop bag up front or heading up to the shops for some messages and it will do this effortless and in a great deal of comfort (sprung saddles are awesome). If I wanted to go for a long road ride I'd take my Ridgeback, if I wanted to ride about like a nutter in the forest then I'd take my Focus Cyclo Cross bike. That's one of the most amazing things about bikes - one for every job!!!