Submitted to the Endless Tweaking of All My Bikes File:
It was bound to happen. All my primary rides end up having cycle computers. I'm not one of those mileage-obsessive types and log in my yearly mileage. But I do tend to like to know how fast I'm going, or how long a current trip is, especially if I'm doing any distance riding. Yeah, I know according to some folk a cycle computer is verboten, but cars do have speedometers and odometers, and bikes are vehicles right? So, a cycle computer.
So the Raleigh Crested Butte got a Sigma computer. Nothing too exciting, your basic wired model that tells speed, distance, time, etc.
Moving onto something a little more exciting: New grips.
There was nothing wrong with the shellacked cork grips that I had on the Crested Butte, but they were the hand-me-downs passed from bike to bike. I'd been thinking about getting leather grips on one of my bikes for a while, but didn't feel like plunking down the money for a set of Brooks grips, nor felt like sewing on a pair like some of them required. So when I found a set of Portland Design Works "Dapper Dan" grips for $30 at a local bike outlet, I decided to splurge.
The instillation was easy, once I figured out the right way to do it. They definitely add a bit of class to an already classy ride, and do the job they're supposed to do.
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Now I just need to ride her...
It was bound to happen. All my primary rides end up having cycle computers. I'm not one of those mileage-obsessive types and log in my yearly mileage. But I do tend to like to know how fast I'm going, or how long a current trip is, especially if I'm doing any distance riding. Yeah, I know according to some folk a cycle computer is verboten, but cars do have speedometers and odometers, and bikes are vehicles right? So, a cycle computer.
So the Raleigh Crested Butte got a Sigma computer. Nothing too exciting, your basic wired model that tells speed, distance, time, etc.
Moving onto something a little more exciting: New grips.
There was nothing wrong with the shellacked cork grips that I had on the Crested Butte, but they were the hand-me-downs passed from bike to bike. I'd been thinking about getting leather grips on one of my bikes for a while, but didn't feel like plunking down the money for a set of Brooks grips, nor felt like sewing on a pair like some of them required. So when I found a set of Portland Design Works "Dapper Dan" grips for $30 at a local bike outlet, I decided to splurge.
The instillation was easy, once I figured out the right way to do it. They definitely add a bit of class to an already classy ride, and do the job they're supposed to do.
Now I just need to ride her...
Looks pretty sweet!
ReplyDeleteWho makes the thumb shifters? The original grip shift on the Yuba finally gave up the ghost and i replaced it with a cheap plastic thumb-shifter that I found in my pile-o-parts, but I'm afraid it's totally going to crap on one of our cold, cold winter days...
Ha! Those are highly covetable 1984 vintage Shimano XT friction shifters. You ain't going to find any modern makers of that quality of thumb shifter anymore, as Shimano/SRAM et al believe you need indexed grip shifts or something. The cheapie plastic ones are the best you're going to do, or go the whole route of putting bar-ends on Paul thumbies...
Deletehttp://www.rivbike.com/product-p/sh8.htm
...which quickly adds up. ($72 for the thumbies plus $82 for Shimano bar-ends.)
Better bet would be just used bar-ends, or find some nice vintage thumb shifters via teh internets or the local bike shops.