What's wrong with this picture?

It's Michigan, it's April 7th, it's 58 degrees F, 

there's not a cloud in the sky,

it's Saturday, about noon

and there's nobody on the local MUP!

I think the sunshine and warm weather must have scared everybody away.

That's OK with me since I wanted to do 25-30 miles to  test a new drivetrain.

Since I donated the rear wheel and crankset from my roadie to my son's new build,

I tried something radically conservative to replace it.  

I got a nice Velo Orange Polyvalent crankset and coupled it with a 12-36 HG cassette.

That gives me a wildly wide range of gears with 46/30 chainwheels up front.

That big thing in back really is a cog

not a pie plate. 

 This beautiful day gave me an excellent chance to test drive it without the usual 

multi-taskers baby/dog walking while listening to their ipods and sending texts to friends.

The Polyvalent Cranset is a super compact unit made for all-purpose riding.  

It really has a nice finish, it includes chromed bolts and a really beautiful integrated chaingaurd.  

I especially like the way they lined up the lazer engraved logos on the rings.

Everything worked out fine, I gave up a bit on the high end but gained an incredible 30/36 granny gear

on the bottom.  There is no route planning to avoid hills with this.

  Just look 'em in the bricks and keep pedaling!

With this light (20 lbs or so) a bike, I feel like I can climb trees.

I plan to leave this on the bike for a couple of months and give it a real workout at the Michigan Mountain Mayhem in June, but really feel it belongs on a hybrid type bike.

Velo Orange developed the crank for their Polyvalent bike which is an all around city/country/credit card touring frame and I think it completely suited for that type of riding.  

I have a project in mind for this later in the summer.