2020 resume of 'bentness.. Well what can I say, bought in May, hardly used it for 2 months in the summer due to working 7 days a week, and I managed to clock up 3659km. That's not bad . First month I went mad and clocked up 1008 km, pushing harder all the time, and my knees were complaining by the end of it. It took a long time for my brain to compute the fact that my legs were far stronger than my knees, and that 1 legged bench presses really weren't where it was at. I still have trouble really spinning ie over 100 rpm for any length of time, 160mm cranks would probably help that, but for the moment I 'm happy with 170mm at 75-95 rpm for most things. I did experiment with 175 cranks, and I found the extra cranking power up hill was really noticeable, but also when chasing a fast roady, I just could not spin fast enough,like riding in treacle with too high a gear. (maybe I should try shorter cranks
) My confidence is now almost as good as on Olive, I'm faster than on Olive, ditto much more comfy. I do still enjoy riding Olive, and if I HAD to only have 1 bike it would be Olive, hands down. I don't see the GTE as a bike, but as a touring machine, something built for a purpose, from the outset, rather than the evolution of 100 + years of welding 2 triangles together in as many different ways as possible..but it does lack that feeling of pure oneness, that simple purity, that a DF has. I even ventured into the dark murky world of BHPC racing, and what fun that was, would have done more but life got in the way. As of yet I still have not ridden it on a group DF ride, partly because there haven't been many , and sometimes contain unexpected rough stuff, and partly I'm not sure how I would get on.
So basically I bought it, sight unseen, untried,with little knowledge and less experience, but I knew it would be right for me, and it is, spot on. Further thoughts on 'wants', I'd love to try an AZUB MAX, with uss, ditto a P38, ditto a trike, I'd also love to try a Flevotrike, (I'm sure I'd fall off a Flevobike). I'd love to go to one of the great 'bent fests on 'the continent' (as they seem to call it now ), ie spezi, and the polish/CZ ones. I have no real plans for N+1, but have been tentatively been mulling over some sort of DIY fairing/streamlining, but probably never get round to it, as I'm a bit of a dreamer. So on the whole , one happy bunny.