i had mustaches on my steamroller for all of 2mi before i hated them but then was all hey i did so much work to get them on there so i'll give it another try and so i did another 5mi and still hated them so i took em off and put on bullhorns and then i wrote this long run on sentence about it.



now...

Your mustache bars weren't high enough, and you should have tried them with regular road levers.

Get a goofy high-rise stem and some road levers and revisit the 'stashes some time. I think you'll find them more comfortable that way.

Or you won't. And you'll still hate them. Some people love 'em, some people hate 'em, but you gotta at least try them set up "properly."

So I've had it out a bit more and am getting used to it. It's feeling beefier in terms of weight as I ride it more, but not bad at all. I'm having a hard time getting good photos as my camera is out of whack since my GF dropped it (thanks honey). Made a few changes. I reversed the brake levers (I like the front brake on the right as I am a motorcyclist and that's what I'm used to) and re-wrapped the bars in red cloth tape. The bike came with black, white and red.



I also got new pedals. I don't ride fixed so I don't really have any need for straps & clips. I prefer just basic pedals. I picked some up at my LBS, B's Bikes in Brooklyn.



I also took it in to them to have the wheels trued. They weren't bad, just slightly out of true and I didn't trust myself to attempt to deal with that.

Overall, I'm loving this bike. Still not sure about the handlebars, and I have my eye out for some track drops on craigslist. I'd also like to replace the stem and seatpost with chrome ones just because I think all the black isn't quite right for the "retro" look, but that's a maybe.

Anyway, I'll keep riding.

Oh, and I moved the rear brake cable up to the top toptube, and took the big alexrims stickers off the rims.

I have to admit this bike has me intrigued.
Especially since I'm refurbishing this gem for a dear friend:



(1957 Phillips R.9 Heavy Roadster w Sturmey-Archer SW hub)
I think the Kilo OS does a half decent job of getting the C & V mojo for little $.

So I had some questions for you, Lostarchitect.

Do you still have the bike? How's it holding up? Did you make any other changes to it? Go for the dirt drop bars, perhaps? How responsive do you find the geometry?
Any other observations after two solid months of riding?

I rode my stepson's Dawes SST-AL in both fixed and SS modes this week, and it got me thinking about trying a FG/SS for myself.


Corey K