Rivendell

I would like to welcome a new member to the family, long awaited much anticipated,although it's new it's like welcoming an elder home. Looking at how it was built and seeing the geometry and materials and holding it,it reeks of time tested and years of disappointment and of success in what was trying to be accomplished.I am having trouble wrapping my words around it,......it has a real presence.I really didn't want to put it together, I could have looked at it for days.The bottom bracket shell, the meeting place of four steel tubes, was something to see,again I cant explain why I was so impressed but looking into that shell was really cool Friday afternoon and Saturday morning I put it together with old and new parts that I had been saving for years,there not nice parts but they are reliable enough to get me rolling, and roll it does first ride was set up fixed,we took the road circuit up through pretty Boy reservoir, saw a ton of other cyclist out, it was cool, before the last long bombing down hill I switched it around to the free wheel,and that felt much better hadn't ridden fixed since last October and with it being a new ride it was very weird. Sunday I got the brakes working like they should and lowered the bars as far as they would go,this was so much better,I had a lot more control, and I was very comfortable.It handles differently than any bike I've ridden,I still have some bugs to work out and once I get used to being up higher and not in an attack position I'll be loving it.