Touring - WOOT!!!!! I got it!!!!

well i pickup my new bike last nite, and its great :) need a few more accerories, fenders and stuff like that and will be adding things in a few weeks. i also really need to learn to deal with the pedals, i guess ive toppled over 3 times, amazing how helpless i feel when it happens. so enough chit chat onto the pics :)


http://www.the-fiddlers-green.com/bike1.jpg

took me some playin around to get the pics to a reasonable size :)
http://www.the-fiddlers-green.com/Bike2.jpg

http://www.the-fiddlers-green.com/Bike3.jpg

http://www.the-fiddlers-green.com/Bike4.jpg

http://www.the-fiddlers-green.com/Bike5.jpg

i had been riding on the perkoman( i know thats spelled wrong sorry), when i saw a tree near this wild flower area, thought it would be a good spot for my pics. very close to valley forge here.
anyway here's a shot of the flowers.
http://www.the-fiddlers-green.com/Flowers.jpg

fortunatly iv'e taken the bulk of the damage from my falls rather than my new bike :). i noticed this when i changed my shoes after the ride.
http://www.the-fiddlers-green.com/cut.jpg

That is a thing of great beauty. Did you work directly with HH or through a local shop (if so, which one?). Is this a one-off or are they ramping up to produce touring and travel frames?

What model front derailleur is that? Did it need modification to work with the STI shifter?

Did HH make the fork too?

Congratulations!

RichC

Originally posted by Rich Clark
That is a thing of great beauty.

I meant the bike, not the road rash!
RichC

worked directly with Harry Havnoonian. he owns cycle sport in media, pa. frame is custom made for touring. he builds frames out of his shop, seems to do a lot of racing frames. when i was in the shop there was a tandem he had built that will be raced in the olympics.
so the bike isn't really a one off, he as built other touring bikes, but its not really a production frame either. i don't know if you could get one of his frames from another shop, or if you have to go to his, but i'll ask.
the fork is his also.
front derailleur is an ultrega.
i dont know if they had to do any modifications to get the shifters to work, but i cant see anything obvious. they did have trouble geting them to work at first, and we were going to go with bar end shifters. but when i went to pick it up they had goten the STI's to work. i asked about it but didnt get much info beyond him saying they work great. i'll quiz more next time im in. i was a real pain thru out the process, and didnt want to pester them too much yesterday :).
anyway Harry and his crew, especially Victor did a great job, and the bike feels and works great. i spent 2 hours in the saddle today, i havent done that in 20 years, but it felt great :)

heres a link to the website
http://www.hhracinggroup.com/

oops almost forgot to say, "Thanks Rich" :)

Sweet looking machine. Have you played with the frame linkage system yet ?
Maybe you fit those pedals to an old bike to get the hand of them rather than risk that paintwork..

I notice there is only one threaded eyelet at the dropouts. Make sure you fit the rack with the fender on the ouside, or you will stresds the bolts. I do this on one of my bikes

Thanks Michael :)
i actually did put clipless pedals on my old bike about 3 weeks before i got the new one. i didnt have any problem on the old bike never even came close to falling over, i actually wondered what all the fuss was about.
the problem seems to be the bikes are different and set up completely different. on the old bike i had the seat set low and was able to easily put my feet on the ground while in the saddle. so get used to a new position seems to be more the problem than just the peddles. think i have the hang of it now tho :).
thanks for the advice on the fender and racks, i'll watch for that when i install them.