Bicycle Mechanics - Just feeling good about my accomplishments

I took the Park Tool class last year and bought the necessary Big Blue Book. I also bought a few tools, including a cable cutter.

I had recently wrapped drop bars for the first time. It wasn't a great job, but it was functional. After a minor spill I managed to tweak my brake levers. I also wanted to adjust the hood position on the bars.

I bought cables, housing, and bar tape. I re-cabled the bike (easy two brakes, single-speed), and re-wrapped the bars. The brakes work great now. The hand position on the hoods is more comfortable, and I did a much better wrapping job than the first time.

Oh, and I went with pink. :D

http://fatguy.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/DSCF8192.jpg

I've been trying to do more of my own work. Although I'm a lousy mechanic, it's not that I can't get it done. It just takes me a while.

Now I need to buy some more stuff and completely re-cable my LHT. It's only got 5900 miles on it. :innocent:

That pink oughta get a response. (But I think you know that)

Keep going with the wrenching. It's a good thing. :thumb:

I've used pink on a couple of gray bikes, it makes a nice contrast.

On one bike, I even used pink housing, pink bottle cages, and pink toe clip straps.

My next bike that will get the pink "treatment" is a white 1987 Terry Despatch.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2749/4322724137_4f2e57da0b_z.jpg?zz=1

Looks like you did a great job. I only wrap my bars about 1 in a couple of years so I never remember how to do it. I always have to look on youtube and refresh on which way to do the turns. It usually turns out fine but I am sure a professional could find something wrong with my wrapping. But since it is my bike I don't let the professionals look at it and it rides fine for me.

I know that you are glad that you can do some of your own work. The more that you do the better you will become at fixing your bike and preventing break downs. Which will be a good thing.

Next you know, you'll have the wrenching bug. I guess we all started at the beginning (changing a tube, adjusting a brake, wrapping bars...) but as you gain confidence, start collecting tools and start tweaking for performance, then you know you're a wrench. Working on a bicycle is very rewarding. And riding a bike you fix and maintain adds to the symbiotic relationship between rider & cyclist.

Yeah, but did you install that stem above the minimum insertion line? ;)

(Just picking on ya, great job on the wrap!)

Hey, that pink tape looks great. Thumbs-up from here. I run pink grips on my skate park bike, btw.

Wrenching is fun. Bikes are just complicated enough to be interesting, and yet not so frustrating as automobiles to work on.

Yeah, but did you install that stem above the minimum insertion line? ;)

(Just picking on ya, great job on the wrap!)

Nope. The min insertion line is not visible. There's a scuff below my bell you're probably seeing in the picture. Hey! I like the bars high.

Looks like you did a great job. I only wrap my bars about 1 in a couple of years so I never remember how to do it. I always have to look on youtube and refresh on which way to do the turns. It usually turns out fine but I am sure a professional could find something wrong with my wrapping. But since it is my bike I don't let the professionals look at it and it rides fine for me.

I know that you are glad that you can do some of your own work. The more that you do the better you will become at fixing your bike and preventing break downs. Which will be a good thing.

Thanks!

This is my second wrap job. The first was about a month ago... on the same bike. I would have left the previous (red) bar tape on longer if I hand't tweaked the brake lever in an endo.

Oh, and I went with pink. :D

http://fatguy.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/DSCF8192.jpg

:


I've used pink on a couple of gray bikes, it makes a nice contrast.

On one bike, I even used pink housing, pink bottle cages, and pink toe clip straps.

My next bike that will get the pink "treatment" is a white 1987 Terry Despatch.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2749/4322724137_4f2e57da0b_z.jpg?zz=1

This is just wrong on so many levels that I cannot even begin.:roflmao2:

This is just wrong on so many levels that I cannot even begin.:roflmao2:

I went with pink partially to get a reaction. It's been working. :)

I went with pink partially to get a reaction. It's been working. :)

I redid a $5 garage sale find for a girl a Schwinn le tour. Needed paint and just about everything else but turned out nice I thought with the pink bars and basket.

http://inlinethumb59.webshots.com/49402/2326869210037547136S600x600Q85.jpg (http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2326869210037547136IdJkbX)

I do have a question. What prompted you to move the hoods? I also find myself changing hood position from bike to bike, bar to bar quite a bit. Lately I have been doing a temporary bar wrap with old tape or something and ride a while before I get what I want then do a nice wrap. I'm always compromising between hood location drop angle and being able to brake and shift. I finally gave up on my touring bike and added some stoker hoods where I wanted the hoods and put the rest where they worked best for me from the drops. I can see why many like bar end shifters as with my one bike with STI and the other with Sora there was always positions I couldn’t shift or brake from, well maybe not "couldn’t" but was less than perfect. I know yours was a single speed so you were just dealing with hood and brake position.

I do have a question. What prompted you to move the hoods? I also find myself changing hood position from bike to bike, bar to bar quite a bit. Lately I have been doing a temporary bar wrap with old tape or something and ride a while before I get what I want then do a nice wrap. I'm always compromising between hood location drop angle and being able to brake and shift. I finally gave up on my touring bike and added some stoker hoods where I wanted the hoods and put the rest where they worked best for me from the drops. I can see why many like bar end shifters as with my one bike with STI and the other with Sora there was always positions I couldn’t shift or brake from, well maybe not "couldn’t" but was less than perfect. I know yours was a single speed so you were just dealing with hood and brake position.

I bought my first drop-bar bike (Surly LHT) in January 2010. The single-speed was purchased in September 2010. It took me over a year to adjust to drop bars. As I've gotten more comfortable with drop bars, I've changed the way I ride.

On the single-speed I had the hoods too low before, but the drop angle was correct. I put off adjusting it because I didn't have an allen wrench that would reach and I didn't want to re-wrap the bars.

The LHT has the hoods about right, but the bar angle is wrong. I'll probably change it soon.

So basically, I have just recently figured out what bar/brake position works for me.

I'll ride without bar tape for a while to try out hood position. That's what gloves are for. :)

I bought my first drop-bar bike (Surly LHT) in January 2010. The single-speed was purchased in September 2010. It took me over a year to adjust to drop bars. As I've gotten more comfortable with drop bars, I've changed the way I ride.

On the single-speed I had the hoods too low before, but the drop angle was correct. I put off adjusting it because I didn't have an allen wrench that would reach and I didn't want to re-wrap the bars.

The LHT has the hoods about right, but the bar angle is wrong. I'll probably change it soon.

So basically, I have just recently figured out what bar/brake position works for me.

I'll ride without bar tape for a while to try out hood position. That's what gloves are for. :)


You are looking at it much as I did. I see a lot of people riding around with their drop bars turned up a little. I'm pretty sure they are trying to get the hoods right and the easy fix is to just rotate the bars. When they do that it makes the hoods feel good and makes brifter shifting from the hoods much better and really makes the drop position suck all the way around. So they never ride down there. Now that they are on the tops and the hoods all the time they put the bars lower so the bike looks really aerodynamic at rest. When I get in the drops I really want control of stopping and shifting as I'm going faster or downhill or into a wind. Someone suggested noodle bars once and they are designed around this same thought process. Something I have to give a try.