The beginning of winter

We got our first real snow of the season, the one that actually stayed around.  Along with it came some 

mid twenties temperature and bitter wind chill.  The roads melted off by themselves and even the MUP's were clear.  I had a few errands to run and nothing to carry so I took the Retro Trek out for a longer test ride.  I was anxious to test out the new free wheel and didn't have any challenging grades.

A couple like this

   provided achance to see the "Mega Range" freewheel work without really stressing the drivetrain..  

I was a little concerned that the rear derailer wouldn't handle the 34 tooth bailout gear.

The jump from the 24 tooth cog to the 34 tooth 

is huge,

 but I found that even with the inexpensive Shimano Sora derailer the shift was smooth and effortless, 

even ascending mild hills.  I gave me a little more confidence to try something more challenging tomorrow.

Riding around town, on a 15 mile loop was a real pleasure with the new handlebar height.  

There is definitely a real comfort advantage to raising the bars up to saddle height.  I spend more time

comfortably riding in the drops.  I'll take a longer ride tomorrow and see how it feels.

On the way home I stopped to pick up some coffee and a few things and realized I had forgotten that I had removed the rack to finish the bracket.  

I had to improvise and came up with this impromtu handlebar bag

Just drape the bag over the front bar, hook the handles onto the drop ends

and pedal on like you know what you are doing.  It held about 5 or 6 items my roll bag wouldn't.  

I can't believe it only took me 40 years of research to think of this.