A buddy came through town on his way to Richmond for the Handmade Bike show, and his touring bike was an old lugged Stumpie with 2" Marathons, a Nitto Persiscope stem and Nitto Rando bars. The seat top was half-way between the tops and the drops, very Grant-Peterson-Approved looking, but they looked all-day comfortable too.
I have Noodle bars on my Trucker, which are great, super comfy bars, but they're pretty low for a touring bike (because I bought mine used and my fork's cut too). I'd been thinking about trying Mustache bars or maybe Albatross bars (since I've had great success with them so far), but after looking at his, I realized my bars might just be perfect if I rode the drops about where Mustache bars would be, and the tops would become like riser flat bars.
So tonight I put one of those Dimension extenders on and re-did the brake cabling. It looks goofy as all get out, but it's a cheap test to see how I like the Touring Super-Comfort cockpit. If it works out I'll replace the extender and stock stem with this high-rise from Soma. 120mm, 40 degree rise, 26.0mm clamp. Bingo. And if that doesn't work out, I'll have the height and cables already set up for Mustache bars anyway. I'll letch'all know how it works out.
Oh! Finished building the wheels for Bonnie, did up her bars and got her running. I got back from test riding her around the block and my wife came downstairs with a bag she said she'd been saving since Christmas. It's hard to see from here, but it's the saddle, a lovely sparkle blue Soma like these. Good saddle and purdy too
It's been a long time since I've had a decent skinny-tire bike, and to be honest I wasn't even sure I was going to be into it after spending so much time pushing big bikes around on fat tires. But boy howdy it's a nice piece of bygawd steel and it rides like a dream.
Ahahahahaha I like it!
