Crazy talk part 2

I was swayed by another blogger to try a bizarre setup with the bar ends not on the ends. Time will tell if it is inspired or crazy.

I have the power!



















Speaking of crazy.

explaination.

I just glossed over some things.

Back in 09 I was riding the Miyata that I bought off Craigslist. But I was unhappy with the performance of the brakes. So I pulled together my spare change and bought from a friend a used 1x1 frame. I had taken a wheel building class and with the newfound confidence built a set of three leading three trailing wheels. It looks as good as you'd expect. geared 1:2.15 with 170mm cranks I am pretty happy with the set up. I have battered rack bolted on and collapsable wire basket zip tied to it on the non drive side. Mostly, the bike was built from parts from the SBR or bought/bartered from other's reserves. The bike has mismatched 160mm  disc brakes.

We bought my wife a Long Haul Trucker and promptly changed the handle bars over and again till we found the set up she liked. Midline levers were as important as anything in making the noodle bars comfortable. It started off life with us with the MKS battle ax pedals and we switched them out for mks tourers. And we took the v brakes off the Instigator and got rid of the crap oryx that the bike came with.

The Instigator has an enabler fork on it and I have sewn a frame bag. I don't have a rack on this bike anymore, it never was made to have one and was battle against its nature. The enabler fork improved the handling I think, and I usually ride it as a 69er. I upgraded from the v-brakes to bb7s. I keep turning to this bike for riding single track. I tear through the woods, crashing on occasion, without worry--this bike is nearly bombproof.

Last summer I borrowed a friend's Pugsley and fell in love with the platform. I learned a few things along the way. Hydraulic brakes for example are great when they work, but if the line pops--then you are screwed. Late in July I was looking on craigslist and found one for a song. I've been commuting on this primarily since, and every ride is giggles. The bike came to me single speed, 36x18 with a second cog for 36x20. The bike looks like an 09 model? When I bought it the handlebars were at a bizarre angle that seemed completely unnatural. I left them in case the guy I bought it from was on to something. Seems he was. I have adjusted my other flat bars to match now. Climbing is more comfortable with smiling bars. Today I gave it fangs.

Handlebars for bicycles

Everyone seems to have an opinion about handlebars. Flat, riser, noodle, attack, mustache, and what have you.

I've been using flat bars for the last three years.

The Miyata I bought came with a flat bar, and I still use that bar on the 1x1 I built. The Instigator came with an old Azonic world force riser bar. the Long Haul Trucker we have has had mustache bars, bull horn bars, riser bars and now has nitto noodle bars. My Pugsley came with a Salsa Mo'to flat bar. Angled up slightly it might be the most comfortable bar I've used.

A while back I'd seen a thing about bar end grips being put in the middle of a flat bar, and have mulled this idea over since. I imagined this for riding through the suburbs,--a mockery of the pathletes on their skinny tires in lycra sausage casings.

This afternoon I finally put them on.

Bwahahahahaha!

pictures to follow.

How many bikes is enough?

One more is the correct answer.

I might have blown a bit of the wad saved for the Pugsley on an old three speed.  

It is a very pretty bike, and uses 650b tires.  Which makes an interesting change from the 27x1 3/8 that Frenchie runs on.  I don't know if it is the gear ratio or the size of the tires but this bike is very spirited.

The new bike came with a cheap plastic seat on it, which worked alright for about 3 miles, at which point it cocked back and tried to throw me off the back of the bicycle.  

When I switched Frenchie over to a Brooks saddle, I saved the Serfas seat for a rainy day.  The Serfas seat cost a small fortune and still had some life left in it, though it wasn't comfortable as it really should have been which is why I switched.  While a leather seat might sound intimidating at first, and before I finished breaking it in I would have agreed, I will never buy another that is not leather.

For now, I'll use the Serfas because it is still better than a block of plastic.

A look to the future

We went biking today.  The trail was still snowy on the Minneapolis side of the river, so it was slow going.  Which is to say, the bikes had minds of their own.  1 3/8 inch tires with mountain treads don't slip around as much as the slicks we used last year.  But a narrow tire on rotten snow cuts through (and goes side to side) pretty much no matter what.  

We've biked on ice and hard snow without any trouble.  But when it gets warm like it has been the snow crumbles underneath.  

I've been saving for a very short amount of time, for my next bike.  And the second new bike I'll have bought.  Its going to set me back more than all the others combined, and at this rate take most of the year to save for.  BUT!  The Pugsley is a wicked cool bike.  

I took one for a spin at Hiawatha Cyclery last summer, and I was giggling.  I'll be the first to admit I giggle easily.  The Pugsley just seems to be a mountain bike to end all mountain bikes.