New bike day - kind of - first road bike ride since end of last summer - here are my thoughts. Hard getting used to freewheeling and not having to pedal round corners. Weird not having to put out any real torque. Missed the comfy sound of an eighth inch chain ticking confidently in the way only an eighth inch fixed chain can. Unnerving only relying on brakes to stop. Kept reaching for the trigger lever. Weird having ‘hoods’ to grab. Gears are totally bonkers. Odd having faultlessly functioning indexed shifting - this was my very first ever ride with a properly working indexed groupset without the chucka, chucka. chucka, chucka, chucka, chucka CLUNK, chucka, chucka. chucka, chucka, chucka, chucka! Old shifters were worn out - btw don’t believe the hype SHIFTERS WEAR OUT!! Once the internal bushings and ratchets wear the pull ratio gets randomly fucked. I’ve finally lost the triple and have double front rings - it beats triple hands down - being able to shift the front without fear of a chain drop or miss followed by mashing carbon and aluminium is very, very odd ‘Thin’ bartape is ridiculously thick and squishy - it’s like gabbing at my belly fat - will learn to live with it :/ #AreWeNotHarderThanThis Later 105 is a huge step up from older ultegra - lighter, stronger, higher quality in both materials and machining - it’s probably as good as it gets if you’re not getting paid to ride Boom! - no adjustment needed - I must be getting handy at this bike maintenance nonsense. All in all an interesting experience. Did a few digs but will need to test it in anger in a twitchy, smashy group to see if it holds up. For tapping out training miles, the wetter rides and doing full on sprint efforts where you tear at the bike so it warps under you, I will roll out the fixie