This bike actually came with straight bars. I tried riding it like that at first, but my hands just couldn't take it--even adjusting angles, height, etc. Also, my brain just couldn't do it. I've always ridden with drop bars, and just couldn't adjust to straight bars, so I found a cheap pair of bars on our local auction web site that came with brake levers, and found the bar-end on eBay UK (just one). I love drops, dearly appreciating the multiple hand positions, narrowness (somehow, I feel I have more control with drops than with straight bars) and just plain more comfortable, long-term. :-)

Schmidt E6? Now I gotta go look! Hold on.... Hm. It just says "Smart Halogen" on it. It has a grey on/off switch. I need to look this up... Can't find anything. It's a simple lamp, but has an on/off, as I said, and seems to have some voltage regulator that keeps it from being overdriven by the dynamo and popping. It also goes fully bright at very slow speeds. Nothing special, but nice enough. ;-)

Now, as to being stolen.... hm. Much nicer bikes than mine. It actually looks quite ugly, IMO. Between the odd things on it (the poor bike shop guy couldn't even _find_ the shift lever--he'd never seen bar-ends in person before!), the duct tape, rust, and jacked up seat--oh, and the road bars, it's highly unlikely it would be stolen. ;-) For reasons I fail to understand, mountain bikes are all the rage here--you know, the heavy ones with heavy, useless shocks, and big, knobby tires that suck all your effort out of you, just to move forward. I'll never understand--ok, so the sidewalks are made out of small square slabs of concrete, and the roads are not the best--but I do just fine with my bike--no need for those nasty mountain things. Other popular bikes are those Dutch bikes, and next, folding bikes (most people live in tiny flats). My bike is most certainly unique in Krakow. ;-) But I don't think it's very desirable for thieves...

-Jon