There's no such thing as a free bike! Let's see, $30 for a parts donor Raleigh, $88 for a pair of Schwalbes, then, would you believe it, I found a Thomson Elite 26.8 at a garage sale yesterday. The sticker said $50, but I rode back at the end of the day and got it for $40. The guy also had an XTR 27.0 new in the bag, but he wanted $100 and I just didn't feel like shelling out that sort of money for something I don't really need. Hopefully it finds a good home.

I had been thinking that a zero setback post might be a good compliment for this bike, because I had pushed the seat all the way forward to reduce the reach to the flat bar. I do not like a lot of reach. So, when I read the measurement on the Thomson post, I sorta had to buy it. I also had a B17 on a tandem that is not getting much use right now, so I figured that'd look classy. Black would be ideal, but I don't have a black one. I thought about using something lighter, because this bike is a genuine tank (30 lbs with no accessories) but at least the Brooks/Thomson combo is no heavier than the Sella Italia/generic combo; In fact, they weigh exactly the same amount: 1 lb 10 oz.



I had planned to get some bars with a bit of sweep, but the Avenir Brahma bars on the donor Raleigh were too good to pass up, so I wrapped them with some used, foam bar tape and gave them a try. Pretty good, really! I don't think I've ever done a bar swap where I had too much cable afterwards. I was taken back to the early 90's, when the thumb shifters were almost touching! Uh-oh, spaghetti cables!



I did a 32 mile maiden voyage on the Big Apple 2.0s and give them two thumbs up. The ride was an urban/gravel/singletrack mix, and I really thought the tires felt great. They easily kept up with my awesome climbing power, and the equally awesome stopping power of these 30-year-old brake pads (sarcasm). Anyways, no regrets about the tires.