Just thought I'd share a few of the recent modifications I've made to my 2014 Fuji Absolute 1.5. Two things prompted me to make these changes. First, I was looking to decrease or eliminate the numbness I've been experiencing lately. And second, I wanted to make the bike a little more trail-worthy -- specifically, to give it more grip in loose material like gravel or stone.

I changed the stock grips (Oval brand) to Ergon GP1 grips. The Oval grips were good at absorbing vibration, but they were a little too large in diameter. As a result, I think they were pressing into my hands too much and cutting off circulation. The Ergons fit my hands much better.

I added bar ends to give myself more hand positions. I wondered whether they needed tape as well, but I decided to try them bare first, and I'm glad I did -- no tape needed.

And finally I swapped out the stock 28mm Vera CityWide tires for 35mm Schwalbe CX Comp cyclocross tires. That is a wider tire than what Fuji told me could fit on the bike, but after measuring all the clearances myself I was convinced they'd fit. And they did indeed. I've read many times on this forum that tires make a big difference, but still I was surprised at just how much of a difference they made. The combination of gaining 25% in width and lowering the pressure by about 50% smoothed out my ride on the bumpy, cracked country roads around here. And today when I hit a short stretch of loose stone, I could immediately notice the improvement in control. To be sure, they're slower on climbs. But it's worth it to have the comfort.

In order of what made the most difference for the numbness, I'd say the tires by far made the most improvement, followed by the bar ends. The grips help, too, but I don't think they're as big of a deal as the other two things.

I'm attaching a few pics to illustrate. The first shows the original tires for comparison.

Beautiful ride and digging the mods. Good to see you customize the bike into exactly what you need it for!

Looks good! I've got a 2013 Absolute 2.1 and have about 1500 miles on the 700x32 Vera Citywide OEM tires. No complaints, but they're 32 vs your 28's. I've started running slightly lower pressures and it makes a difference. When they finally wear out, I'm planning on going with something a bit more aggressive for gravel rides, but the 32 works for me.

Nice to see another Absolute on the page. Not many out there despite being a great ride.

Cheers

Mine had just under 2,000 miles on them with no flats, and probably had another 1,000 miles left on 'em. They're good tires, especially for stock tires. I'm definitely hanging on to them in case I end up missing the lower rolling resistance. But at this point I'm happy to trade the small reduction in speed for the smoother ride.

Good stuff, you have inspired me.

Looks like you have different brake pads too.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention those. I swapped out the stock rear pads for Kool Stops about a year ago, and finally got around to doing the front ones while I was changing the tires.

The new tires have a range of 35 to 65 psi, and I had been running them in the 45-50 range. To help with climbing, I bumped them up pretty close to the 65 psi max today, and that made a big difference. In fact, I had a personal best time climbing a 1.5-mile hill with a 7.5% average grade -- beat my old time by over two minutes.

So with higher pressure, I don't think these tires slow me down as much as I previously thought, if at all. And they're still day-and-night more comfortable than my old 28s. Wish I had switched to these earlier!