I have been cycling to work for about 5 years.Currently my commute is about 20kms a day and about 6 months ago, my dunga old Scorpio Stealth kicked the bucket after about 15000kms of hard work.

So that was when i purchased my new Avanti Blade 2.0 from Pedal pushers. 

It cost about $699 at the time which was a bit more that I was anticipating spending, however I knew I would be worth it.

After 6 months of riding my blade, I love it although I have had some issues with the wheels.

I went through a stage of popping a rear spoke on the weinmann sec 16 rim at least once a week. As well I was getting a few too many punctures on the kendra 700x32c tyres that I could handle.

I got rid of the Kendras and put on some specialised armadillo 700x23c tyres which made the ride a little rougher and faster, and I haven't had a puncture since.

Also the spoke issue was taken care of by the guys at pedal pushers. The completely rebuilt the rear wheel with high quality spokes and 700kms later, no more broken spokes.

Now I've put some clip-on pedals on it, and comfortably ride about 80-90kms during the weekend. Roll on November when I take it for a ride around the Manawatu and Lake Taupo.

Update: Just finished the Tour de Manawatu on this bike and it went pretty well. Was a very comfortable ride on the flats and managed to go quite well up the hills. Drop handlebars may have helped me on the down hills and in the wind but overall I was very happy with the blade on this ride. You're not gonna win any races on this bike but combine it with the armadillos for a puncture/stop free ride around anywhere.

116kms in 4hrs 20m... not to bad for me who would have been happy with anything under 5hrs

Update 2: Just finished the  "Round the lake cycle challenge" on the trusty blade... 160kms in 6hrs 55mins which is better than I thought I would do it. No flats at all with the armadillos which was fantastic... There were alot of people changing tyres along the way. It did really well up the hills also. Although its probably a bit heavier than some bikes, its lower range of gears made the hills very manageable and it still had the upper gears to fly down the other side at speed. Really happy with this bike