June 29th, 2008:



August 3rd, 2008:



April 7th, 2009:



I bought the bike used and it had the oddly mounted rack, big cushy seat and ratty old handlebar tape. First thing I did was change the seat to one I had laying around and ditch the rack. I did try to keep the rack and positioned it so it was level, or closer to level, but the heel strike was terrible and I couldn't carry anything worth a rack on it anyway.

Then, after an incident involving a flat a mile away from where I needed to be, I bought a pump, saddle bag, tire levers, patch kit and spare tubes (I also got a spoke wrench and presta->schrader adapters to stuff in there, just in case).

This year, I ditched the seat when I found the white one seen in the last photo. I wasn't aiming for white, but it was on sale and is fairly comfortable for the riding I do (my butt is still adjusting ) and added the white handlebar to match (the old stuff had again become ratty due to a couple of spills). I have since put the saddle bag back on but need to get a smaller one.

All in all, it has been a fun transformation