With your first version, immediate issues would be the BO, CR, and CL bigrams. I agree the B is bad. Your second version looks somewhat better, but you still have CL and CR. If you're going down this route, I'd keep C in the Qwerty position and type it with your index finger, that should avoid a lot of the bigram issues and would allow you to keep ZXCV shortcut compatibility. Even if you have strong ring fingers, I'm doubtful of the need to put a key like D in the W position.

In fact, you might want to look at something like this, which I previously considered in the days before Mod-DH:

Start with base Colemak, then:
1. Rotation of D > P > G
2. Swap R - S
3. Swap L - F
4. Rotation of H > M > K to fix the HE issue.

It's fun to create new layouts, but in the end, you're probably better off to stick with base Colemak or Mod-DH.

Yeah, just remember: SteveP, the creator or the illustrious Keyboard Layout Analyzer, tried out and abandoned those ideas – apart from #4 which is just part of Colemak-DH today. And #1 is a step on the way to Cmk-DH as well (permuting DPG instead of DVBG, an idea both him and I find light but inferior). Give you any ideas? ^_^

BTW, the R-S swap is the most common gripe with new users, because of Colemak "castling" the two keys from their QWERTY positions. Shai himself had the following to say on this back when Colemak was still new – you may contest it of course but I've yet to see anyone settle down on swapping R and S from Colemak's positions:

Shai said:

* E has been moved to the right hand because it would cause a very high same-finger ratio with the C key, and in order to increase a bit hand alternation.
* I've explained my reasons for the S/R switch in the Asset entry for CapsOff.org competition. The ring finger which is the least dexterous finger should avoid as much as possible same-finger.
* Colemak balances equally the effort between the hands. I don't believe that the right hand should do more work, because the right hand needs to use the mouse as well, and in fact it is more likely to be strained due to mouse use.

DreymaR said:

Yeah, just remember: SteveP, the creator or the illustrious Keyboard Layout Analyzer, tried out and abandoned those ideas – apart from #4 which is just part of Colemak-DH today.

I'm actually not sure if he meant mine or the patorjk one, but I guess the latter judging by the screenshots. Mine doesn't make such pretty graphics :P

DreymaR said:

BTW, the R-S swap is the most common gripe with new users, because of Colemak "castling" the two keys from their QWERTY positions.

The reasoning for the R-S swap in Colemak is sound of course, but it can be mitigated to a large extent if you use the "angle-cheat" mod (C with index finger) as it then avoids what would be a common CR bigram. Putting L in the Colemak F position is also reasonable given that most people regard the top-row middle-finger position to be quite good, and LR/RL is not too common. It still introduces SW though, and increases the number of keys that change sides, but worst of all is the dreaded Qwerty B position. OP has tried to address that by putting X there, but I still find that a lot less satisfactory than the DH solution, with Z moving there on ANSI boards.

aspiringnobody said:

Mod DH is a little tough for me personally because of the location of the D (arthritis).

I'm surprised about that as one of the key design goals of DH is to make it *much easier* to type D (and H) compared to base Colemak.

I don't know how your arthritis is affecting you of course, but it makes me wonder if you might be able to improve the way you approach the keyboard. In Angle-Mod / Mod-DH style typing, the wrists should be approaching the keyboard symmetrically, and at an angle. Judging by the way you coloured in the keys, I imagine you must be doing something like this already. The index finger will be resting over the bottom part of the T keycap. Typing D should involve just curling that finger inward ever so slightly, probably no more than a 1cm from its home position, and with no lateral hand movement. T,N,D,H should all be extremely easy with this technique.