My buddy Emre has started mountain biking in July (offroading again after long years since his high school days). He had his eye on my SS since the beginning. He understood at that time that SS was the way to go. 
Finally he ordered an Ibex and dropped the gear ratio from the crazy 34:16 to 34:19.
Aside: I had to fine tune his experience by "correcting" the orientation of the front wheel. He had assembled it backwards! He had some (!) handling problems and toe overlap issues because of that. We had a great laugh out of it! Ha ha!
Anyway, after his second SS ride today, he said that SS riding is a completely different experience. He absolutely gets it and he loves it!
He thought that riding SS was different than imitating SS without shifting, which he has been doing on and off.
He felt connected to the bike too but that must be his new clipless pedals. (He mastered that pretty quickly as well.) Also, he loves his front shock and disk breaks a lot. What a big change from his beginner rigid bike to an SS with front shock, clipless pedals, disk breaks, etc. etc. Oh... and a new color-matched helmet too...
Looking forward to seeing you at Sea Otter...
Ali
P.S. This thread is useless without pictures.
Finally he ordered an Ibex and dropped the gear ratio from the crazy 34:16 to 34:19.
Aside: I had to fine tune his experience by "correcting" the orientation of the front wheel. He had assembled it backwards! He had some (!) handling problems and toe overlap issues because of that. We had a great laugh out of it! Ha ha!
Anyway, after his second SS ride today, he said that SS riding is a completely different experience. He absolutely gets it and he loves it!
He felt connected to the bike too but that must be his new clipless pedals. (He mastered that pretty quickly as well.) Also, he loves his front shock and disk breaks a lot. What a big change from his beginner rigid bike to an SS with front shock, clipless pedals, disk breaks, etc. etc. Oh... and a new color-matched helmet too...
Looking forward to seeing you at Sea Otter...
Ali
P.S. This thread is useless without pictures.