Zack asked whether my Leo still has an Albastache cockpit or if I've 
switched it back to drops.  

Neither.  I sold the Leo frameset a while back, but kept the cockpit.  I 
think my ideal Albastache road bike will take 38s plus fenders.  That 
machine is on the list...

Bill Lindsay
El Cerrito, CA

On Monday, February 15, 2021 at 6:15:45 PM UTC-8 zem...@gmail.com wrote:

> Dear Bill, 
>
> Just checking in on your Ablastache conversion years later! Still using 
> them with Leo? Or switched back to drops?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Zack
>
> On Friday, November 9, 2018 at 2:50:25 PM UTC-5 Bill Lindsay wrote:
>
>> As you know I did a 200k brevet on my Leo Roadini last weekend. I decided 
>> a little while back to experiment with Albastache bars on the Roadini to 
>> tweak it's spot in the stable a little bit.  I'm looking for the athletic 
>> yet civilized vibe of a 1980s sport-touring machine, and I also wanted to 
>> project kind of the 2019-version of a 1992 XO-1.  That XO-1 angle was 
>> influenced in part that I was already running a Nitto/Ritchey stem that 
>> originally came stock on a Bridgestone XO-1.  
>>
>> Last night I did the conversion. I pulled the 46cm Soba Noodle bars 
>> only.  Same stem, same shifters.  The only associated work was I took a 
>> couple inches off the brake cable housing. The bar swap, tape job and first 
>> coat of shellac took about an hour.  I left it to dry and this morning 
>> installed the barcon shifters and took it for my 40-mile 3000ft commute to 
>> my office.  Here's the look:
>>
>>
>> [image: IMG_1142.jpg]
>>
>> [image: IMG_1141.jpg]
>>
>> Executive summary: the Albastache bars are terrific.  They are neither 
>> 'better' nor 'worse' than drop bars for me.  They are different and good 
>> different. I'm happy to have an Albastache road bike in my stable and have 
>> no qualms whatsoever about trying a 200k brevet on this bike in this 
>> configuration.  
>>
>>
>> Like drop bars, Albastache bars give me several good places to put my 
>> hands.  I'm a cockpit fidgeter, and I move around quite a bit, particularly 
>> when solo and particularly in the hills.  The selection of choices took a 
>> couple of minutes to figure out, but they are all familiar and normal 
>> feeling to me.  I did not use any of the super narrow real estate this 
>> morning because my Ruthworks rackless Brevet Bag took up that space.  If we 
>> think of Albastache bars as splayed out drop bars, then with my hands in 
>> the 'drops' is a very upright comfortable cruising position.  I noticed 
>> that the combination of my weight reasonably far back due to Leo's slack 
>> seat tube angle, and my upper body up and back with the Albastache cockpit, 
>> the steering felt VERY light, reminding me of the low trail bikes I've 
>> ridden.  That light touch steerability Is not something I normally 
>> associate with Rivendells.  When I plant myself into the beginning of the 
>> hooks or all the way into the hooks, then I got more of the standard Riv 
>> steering feel where I think where I want to go and my hips take care of 
>> it.  
>>
>>
>> The only awkwardness was deciding which position to use from a stop.  
>> That full forward position which puts my hands in a shape like they would 
>> be on a straight bar, was the most awkward.  The best places were in the 
>> drops or the beginning of the hook curve. That's the closest thing to the 
>> on-the-hoods hand shape.  The cool thing is that I noticed when standing, 
>> as I was rocking the bike, each time I slightly unloaded one hand, it was 
>> easy to wander position like 1cm at a time.  Normally with drop bars I pick 
>> my hand-spot, stand, do what I need to do, sit, and reposition my hands.  
>> With Albastache I was able to wander around incrementally while standing, 
>> which was kind of cool.  
>>
>>
>> My full-tuck full-power positions sometimes had my elbows down below the 
>> level of the drops.  On descents I found a position where my hands were in 
>> the hooks near the brakelevers and my forearms were resting on the drops, 
>> which was also kind of cool, like an aerobars position.  I did not attack 
>> the ride itself, because the air quality is lousy from the wildfires.  Even 
>> though the fire area is over 100 miles away, the smoke is everywhere, so I 
>> took it comparatively easy.  For a speedcheck I went for a PR on the 
>> descent down Redwood Road from the Chabot Park entrance to the Golf 
>> Course.  This descent doesn't let me pedal much because I'm rolling too 
>> fast.  My time mainly comes down to handling and aerodynamics.  I went for 
>> a Strava PR and I got it.  Out of 16 total efforts on this segment, I was 
>> 15 seconds faster than I had ever done it before (3:53 vs my previous best 
>> of 4:08).  That's in the top 20% all-time on Strava, out of ~7000 riders.  
>> Does that mean that Albastache bars are objectively faster than drop bars?  
>> No.  But that result does support my opinion that I was not objectively 
>> slower using Albastache bars on this bike.  
>>
>>
>> So, I'm pleased with my initial experience on Albastache bars. I'm not 
>> going to go replace all the drop bars on all my bikes, but I'm glad to have 
>> an Albastache road bike on-hand.  It is a distinct possibility that I'll 
>> freak out my SFR comrades by running this bike at the December 200k
>>
>>
>> Bill Lindsay
>>
>> El Cerrito, CA
>>
>>
>>

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