Saturday Ride 12-13-08

Today was not a good day to ride. 25 mph winds with gusts to 40 mph. It was fun when I left my house with the wind to my back but the return trip was very rough. There were lots of sour faces on the trail today. I had just installed my new bars and Thumbies, so just like a kid with new toys I couldn't wait to try them out. I have never ridden a bike with anything but flat or drop bars so it took some time getting used to the Albatross bars. I forgot where my brake levers were a couple of times, I kept reaching towards the front of the bars where the brake hoods were on my drop bars but I eventually got comfortable with the new setup. I had to tilt up the nose of my saddle. While riding in this new upright position I began to feel like I was sliding off the front. I also set my shifters to friction mode. I think I may keep them this way for a while. The location of the mirror didn't work out for me. I'm not sure where to put it. I didn't want it interfereing with my hand positions so I placed it on the left bar end.

I left the end caps off in case I needed to adjust the brake levers.

Thumbies with shifters in friction mode. 

 

I jumped off of the Trinity Trail at Rogers Street. I rode through the neighborhoods looking for some relief from the wind. When I jumped back onto the trail I found this decorated memorial bench.

 

Some Progress

My Long Haul Trucker has been down for a while now. Between work and printing shirts for our Christmas Etsy orders I haven't been able to get to it. This is what I've done so far.

I replaced the stock drop bars with a Nitto Albatross. I then decided to go with inverse brake levers and shifters mounted on Paul's Thumbies. I figured this set up would give me plenty of room between the bar ends and the stem to move my hands around for climbs and everything in between.

I hope to have the brakes and derailleur adjusted and the tape on by tomorrow night.

Gino Light Mount

I need this. The Gino Light Mount, $20, by Pauls Component Engineering.

What A Pain!

I couldn't stand it any longer, I had to install my Albatross bars. It seemed like a fairly straightforward job, remove the brakes and bar end shifters from my drop bars and re-install them on my new bars. Nothing too difficult and by doing the work myself I figured I would save some money. A few minutes later I had snapped the bolt that expands the mechanism in the bar end and I had damaged some of the soft metal on the shifter when I struggled to remove the remaining portion from inside the handlebar. After a little work with the Dremmel tool I may have salvaged the shifter. Of course now I wished I had waited till Monday and taken my bike to the shop.

Heres where the part snapped.

If the shifter is still workable I may buy a pair of Paul's Thumbies. If the shifters no good I'll either go with downtube shifters or buy a pair of these cheap ($13) thumb shifters from Rivendell. Now I remember why I pay people to work on my bikes.