Originally Posted by
due ruote
+1 really splendid. So the bars are a win? How would you compare them to VO Porteur bars?
Thanks! These bars are much wider, the hand grip area is not as swept back, and they have no drop/rise. Closer to mtb bars than to porteur bars. They're a copy of the Nitto Jitensha bar, which as I understand is a copy of an old Italian design.
Originally Posted by
bradtx
southpawboston, Looks great to me, nice job! Were you familiar with some of the kit prior to the re purposing, like the handle bars, or was this a calculated experiment? I like the bag, possibly to use on my distance bike.
Brad
Thanks, I knew some of the parts but the whole thing was a calculated experiment. I already knew the porteur rack really well since I have the same one on my Jeunet and have been using that for 3.5 years. I picked up this one cheap on the iBob list, with the intent of eventually using it on the Shogun. I knew that the only shortcoming was the fork crown bracket, being a universal piece of drilled flatstock designed to make installation easy but resulting in flex. That's why I had a welder modify this one, by welding a circular section of stainless tubing and a crown bolt to the back of it for a direct mount:
I also had him weld on a headlight mount, made quite simply with a 1" length of stainless tubing welded to the rack strut, with the exposed end tapped for an M6 bolt. The headlight is as sturdy as can be and is tucked safely from damage from falling, etc. And I was able to re-use the existing fender hole from the prior rando rack installation, and the existing headlight wire routing (the headlight was attached to the prior rando rack with a home-made bracket):
I had never tried the Postino bars before, but since I had seen many city bike conversions with the Jitensha bars, and the Postinos are half the price, I thought I'd give them a try. Glad I did! My hands and arms are comfortable with them, and my back angle, slightly higher than it was in rando-configuration but far from upright, is just about where I want it for navigating through traffic.
The bag is a Carradice Pendle, one size up from the Barley. It used to be Carradice green, but it's become faded to a chalky gray from being left on my Jeunet commuter, which lives outside. It's supported by a Carradice bagman which, in this form, is no longer made. It's been a great saddlebag, totally waterproof canvas, but I'll probably swap it out for a larger one since I'm toting around so much of my daughter's stuff lately. But for a distance bike, it's more than big enough.