The pieces are coming together, and it's nearly springtime. I decided that to really increase my average speed from 10.5 mph for all brevets, I need to do something. I'm strong enough and I find that the wrists and hands don't have enough positions to keep them on the bars all the time when riding for more than 10 hours. Plus, whenever there's a headwind, I wonder why I didn't order my BF with drop bars.
So I decided to convert and have gathered the pieces, with the help of the friendly staff at Green Gear Cycles (BikeFriday). They sell the split drop bars, but I sourced the Cane Creek aero brake levers from City Bikes here in Portland. I also bought a new 9 speed Shimano Dura Ace bar end shifter set from City Bikes.
The split bars should be delivered today. Hopefully ready for the next 200km in April.
Also got the town names for the Northern Tier route of Adventure Cycling into a spreadsheet.
Over & Out
An April 22, 2014 Update. With competition for time completing home improvement and landscaping duties, I acquired the cables and cable housings with the idea of getting the drop bars on for the R5, a repeat of Lunch at Nick's. That didn't happen, but the the preparation for said ride included adjusting the brakes. The front disks were no problem, just needed to bring the inboard pad further than the outboard pad. On the rear, there was a bump near the valve stem, so I played with the spoke tensions to bring it back to true. Then one of the spoke nipples rounded out and I looked more closely at the rim, and it had a crack on the braking surface. Then took it off, and used pliers to bring the rim back into round. Then i saw the crack all the way around the left side of the rim. Put everything back together, and opened the brakes up by using the quick release lever. Back to my other preparations for the R5, and it was on my mind. What would happen if I lost the rear wheel, a call for a ride home and a DNF.
After a couple miles, no problem, so i reduced the use of the rear brake to absolute minimum. We made good time and on the way north from McMinville, the thumping at the frequency of the wheel rotation would be noticed when everything else was quiet. I ended up with three things to check on the BF. 1. Front end headset fore-aft looseness, 2. get a new rim, 3. find the thumping.
We , I got back, under 10 hours. A new high average of 14.1 mph. Next day. looked at the rim and there was now a hole in the brake surface. Result is a replacement Alex 390 rim, new spokes, nipples by next Friday at Universal Bicycles. I'll try to remember to pick up the bar tape, as well.
