borobike

Back again!

Thanks! I've been up and down a lot of hills that I would consider steep. The bike handles them really well, no slipping at all. I'm definitely the weak link in the steep hill situation.

Well, let's see. I've got 1047 miles on the bike now. After checking my logged miles on the 16th, I see I've only gone a little over 80 miles since then, ouch! Unfortunately life, cold weather, and not really wanting to get up at 7 in the morning on Saturday is interfering. I may try to squeeze in a ride this afternoon. I've got the headlights all charged up in case I do.

Speaking of which, check out my free home made custom flashlight mount:



I was having trouble getting my Ultrafire to work for months, but thought I'd take a stab at fixing it. I didn't want to buy anything for a light I wasn't sure would work, so I made a mount out of a hose clamp and an old rifle scope mount. It's actually quite solid, and the flashlight can be removed without removing the whole mount.

As it turns out, all the light needed was a little solder. It's quite reliable now, which is good because I'll need it as it's getting darker sooner. To the right of it is my Cateye HL-500 II, which is halogen. It works very well for what it is, but the Ultrafire even on it's lowest setting is brighter and more noticeable to oncoming traffic than the Cateye. So I guess now I have a main headlight (Ultrafire) and a fog/bad weather light (Cateye).

Other than that, I fixed my seat creak simply by tightening a bolt, so my only problem thus far is fixed. The original front wheel and the replaced rear are still true. Tires are in good shape and have only been punctured once in 1000 miles (by barbed wire). Front hub is still good, headset still moves freely. Brake levers are fine, as is the frame and handlebars, and the original pedals.

Everytime I encounter someone new in our bike group (all experienced riders) more often than not, they ask me about my bike and compliment me on how nice it looks. I freely admit that I paid $150 for it at Wal-Mart, although I replaced most of the original components and it's now more or less a $300 bike. Never had a negative comment, most are shocked that it was a Wal-Mart bike. If I told them how many trouble free miles I had on it, they'd probably be even more shocked. But they do see me out there every week, more often than not out at the front of the pack, sometimes even leading it.

I still say the stock shifters absolutely suck, and take up valuable real estate on the bars, so TexasPedaler, if you are looking to mod your bike that's where I would start. My friction stem shifters work great and are a drop in mod. Bar-end shifters would work great too and be drop in as well. I'd recommend friction in either case, as the indexing may be slightly off from the stock freewheel.

Everything else has been well worth it in one way or another as well. I greatly enjoy the top speed gained from my Dura-Ace crankset, the extremely tight braking performance from my Tektro dual pivot calipers and Kool-Stop pads, the quick, smooth, and reliable shifting from the Sora front derailleur, the more predictable and smoother shifting from the Shimano hyperglide cassette, and the smooth, quick, reliable and tight shifting offered from the Sora rear derailleur. It's a varied mess of parts, but they all work very well together and I couldn't ask for a much better bike.

Next up, just planning on riding it and maintaining it. Haven't touched it in probably over 100 miles since I cleaned and relubed the chain, well except to tighten the seat and install my flashlight of course. Might try brifters someday, but for now I really enjoy the simplicity and reliability of friction shifting. Especially on the front derailleur.
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