As you know, I keep tweaking my bikes. I like doing it, and I keep searching for that elusive "perfection" that seems to keep changing as I change. An additional benefit is that some of the tweaks, most noticeable handlebar changes, seem to give the bike a whole new personality. Some bars do that more than others. Sometimes, the new personality isn't as nice as the previous one, but sometimes, the change is so amazing that you wonder how can this happen on the same bike where nothing else has changed.
My Betty was pretty much perfect after my last round of tweaks. The Hetre tires make the ride incredibly amazing, the Bullmoose Bosco bars made the ride better than anything before and I was pretty happy on my commutes. There was, however, a little something still missing... The Bullmoose Bosco bar is pretty wide. It didn't seem so at first, but wide bars have their own personality. Also, since you can only use mountain bike brakes, the brake lever is halfway on the straight end which means that you can only access the brakes when your hands are on the grips or the ends of the bar and you are fully upright. When riding, one tends to drift forward with the hands, especially when riding faster and one of the favorite positions is with the hands on the curves of the bar. From this position, there is no access to the brake levers. So, in order to keep experimenting, I ordered the Grand Bois Promenade bar, which looks like a mini Bosco bar but with one very significant detail I was looking for... it takes reverse brake levers! These allow access to the brake levers from pretty much any position on the straight back sections of the bar, including almost to the curves. The bar is quite narrow, especially compared to the Bullmoose Bosco bar. I ordered an 11cm Tallux 25.9 stem to position the bars in relatively the same position of the Bosco and have been riding it for the past couple of weeks on my commutes to work. And here's the magic, the bike's personality completely changed. It goes faster, it zooms and floats on the road. At first the narrowness was disconcerting, but aside from feeling different at slow speeds by removing the "torque" wide bars provide, the position is very comfortable and it has made the bike really disappear from under me. I'm still tweaking the angle and height since I find my hands hurt a bit as there are no grips, just Brooks leather tape, but when riding faster, my hands go to the curves and I've experienced this feeling where it's as though all I can feel is my feet on the pedals but nothing else between me and the road. Ah, the other thing that feels different is when standing to climb a steep climb; that is really where the narrowness becomes more of an issue since I have to be careful for my knees not to hit the ends of the bars. They don't fit inside the bars like they do on the wider bars. I'm starting to think that perhaps I'll try the regular Cromoly Bosco bars that aren't as wide as the Bullmoose Bosco and see how I like it with those. But then again, I do love those reverse brake levers on that bike. It's the one thing I wish Grant had done differently, although I understand that those aren't so readily available and the logical thing was to go with regular brake levers. But then again... There is something about that Betty that makes it so special! Photos to illustrate the story... http://tinyurl.com/brtgkt3 Enjoy... René -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
