Well that went better than expected. After negotiating the front door (more work needed there), I took it for a quick loop round the block and confirmed fully operational brakes and gears. Then barakta got on and we rode to the local park, where we did several laps, a few handlebar adjustments, a bit of bollard dodging, scared some geese and did some controlled testing on the nice new flat area of hardpacked gravel (over a giant sewage tank) to check that it wasn't pulling to either side, even under braking. I had a couple of goes, during which I managed to lift two wheels at the same time, and executed a rather good handbrake turn. For
SCIENCE.
So yeah, my fettling appears to have been fairly successful. I was at least expecting to have to tweak the brakes a bit. The bottle dynamo performs better than I expected, and is inaudible under the noise of the studded tyre. The pixeo rear lights were, I reckon, an excellent choice. Main thing to do now is sort out a proper extension for the bar-end shifter, an aerial for the FMGenie, and do something about mirrors - obviously we've filled all the good mirror-mounting places with controls, maybe something on the top of the mudguard...
Barakta will be along in a minute to give her verdict, but it seems that there were zero shoulder issues, and the main point of concern is her somewhat unconventional hip...
Here are some of the photos, taken while there was something that could loosely be described as daylight available. I need a better camera - moving targets were not an option:
I make it 10.5km for barakta, a little more for me. Perfectly respectable first ride, especially as it wasn't warm.