two Midge-ish commuter conversions (with pics)
11-23-08 | 10:24 PM
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Joined: May 2006
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From: Austin, TX
Bikes: Current: 1991 Miyata 914, 2006 Fuji Team Pro, 1988 Nishiki Intternational
two Midge-ish commuter conversions (with pics)
This all started with my 1992 Nishiki Katmandu, a fairly road bike-like hybrid I picked up from Craiglist last 4th of July. (This bike was the subject of an earlier thread here.) I started off by replacing the original brakes with some new Tektro Oryx cantilevers -- nothing exciting about that--but then I realized that I just hated the feel of flat-bar handlebars and would need to replace them to make the bike ride-able.
After searching through the alternate handlebar threads here, I found myself intrigued by the look and descriptions of the Midge bars from On One and the Midge-clone Gary bars from Origin 8. Both seemed to have a lot of fans, but in the end my penny-pinching instincts won out and I ordered a set of Gary bars, which turned out to look pretty cool when they arrived--light weight and very distinctive looking. Unfortunately, I realized in rapid order that they wouldn't work with either the Shimano thumbies I was initially intending to use on the Katmandu (the bar is too fat for mountain shifters), nor with the Dia Compe Silver Bar End shfiters I tried next (the Gary's bar ends are too narrow.) So I dropped the Gary bar on my mistakes pile, and ordered a Midge, which I knew would work because I had seen them pictured with barcons more than once.
This all makes the process sound too easy--in fact, it dragged on for months while I waited for various parts to arrive, but finally I got the Katmandu back on the road earlier this month, and I have to say that the Midge bars are a truly transformational component, completely changing the feel of the bike compared to the old flat bars. I use the Katmandu almost exclusively for in-city riding, and the Midge bars provide a variety of comfortable upright positions (at least four) that are great for negotiating traffic, as well as a semi-drop position that lets me tuck down and peddle hard. I wouldn't recommend them for open country riding -- you really can't tuck down as much as you'd want to battle a strong head wind, but for urban riding they're great.
Meanwhile, a few months ago I picked up an old (1982?) Suteki Track 10, which, with its rack and fender mounts and comfortable touring frame, also seemed like it would make a fine commuter. But the ride was just OK, and I couldn't get entirely comfortable with drop bars for urban riding. And the stem-mounted shifters just seemed like a terrible mistake when I was down in the drops. That's when inspiration struck, and I dug the Gary bars out of the my mistakes pile and mounted them, along with a pair of old Shimano RX100 aero brake levers and some 700x32c Panaracers, on the Suteki. Suddenly it became an incredibly comfortable city bike, and with the shallower-than-road-bar drop on the Gary bars, even the stem-mount shifters made sense.
Enough talk. Here's the photographic evidence:
First the Nishiki:
Now the Suteki:
After searching through the alternate handlebar threads here, I found myself intrigued by the look and descriptions of the Midge bars from On One and the Midge-clone Gary bars from Origin 8. Both seemed to have a lot of fans, but in the end my penny-pinching instincts won out and I ordered a set of Gary bars, which turned out to look pretty cool when they arrived--light weight and very distinctive looking. Unfortunately, I realized in rapid order that they wouldn't work with either the Shimano thumbies I was initially intending to use on the Katmandu (the bar is too fat for mountain shifters), nor with the Dia Compe Silver Bar End shfiters I tried next (the Gary's bar ends are too narrow.) So I dropped the Gary bar on my mistakes pile, and ordered a Midge, which I knew would work because I had seen them pictured with barcons more than once.
This all makes the process sound too easy--in fact, it dragged on for months while I waited for various parts to arrive, but finally I got the Katmandu back on the road earlier this month, and I have to say that the Midge bars are a truly transformational component, completely changing the feel of the bike compared to the old flat bars. I use the Katmandu almost exclusively for in-city riding, and the Midge bars provide a variety of comfortable upright positions (at least four) that are great for negotiating traffic, as well as a semi-drop position that lets me tuck down and peddle hard. I wouldn't recommend them for open country riding -- you really can't tuck down as much as you'd want to battle a strong head wind, but for urban riding they're great.
Meanwhile, a few months ago I picked up an old (1982?) Suteki Track 10, which, with its rack and fender mounts and comfortable touring frame, also seemed like it would make a fine commuter. But the ride was just OK, and I couldn't get entirely comfortable with drop bars for urban riding. And the stem-mounted shifters just seemed like a terrible mistake when I was down in the drops. That's when inspiration struck, and I dug the Gary bars out of the my mistakes pile and mounted them, along with a pair of old Shimano RX100 aero brake levers and some 700x32c Panaracers, on the Suteki. Suddenly it became an incredibly comfortable city bike, and with the shallower-than-road-bar drop on the Gary bars, even the stem-mount shifters made sense.
Enough talk. Here's the photographic evidence:
First the Nishiki:
Now the Suteki:
