Steel is real - first ride out on the new Eastway ST1.0

Today the rain finally stopped and the sun came out so i took my new Eastway ST1.0 out for a ride. I decided to get a new steel bike with normal gears this time and the Eastway fitted the bill with Sram Apex- compact front & 11-32 rear. The other advantage was there is enough clearance in the frame / forks for my Schwalbe Marathon Extreme tyres that i use all year around. The third advantage was Start Cycles are selling off all there remaining stock of Eastway models. There was 30% off then another 10% if you use the code CYCLES10 in the basket. The bike was fully set up and delivery is free as well, excellent service from them.
I swaped a few parts from my own stock and its rides like a dream. I did a 17 mile loop of mixed terrain from back tarmac roads, offroad railway lines to some singletrack. The only thing to sort is the front mudguard which is too short and the bottom of the down tube / bb area gets alot of spray. A longer guard or a mud flap will sort this out. The rear one is better but they dont have the reflective strip in or a rear refelctor. I might swap them for some Tortec guards which i have on another bike and are spot on. After a few more rides i will post up a report on the bike.