Building a road bike

Are we there yet?

We are. But we enjoyed the ride so much we’re gonna do a few laps of the block before going in for tea. It’s been 16 months since my last post on this project. I hadn’t really intended doing any more to the bike but a few minor ideas grew and next thing you know here we are again.

So what’s to do?

Stem
Well, the carbon frame is quite long. Not too long, and I’m not one of these nuts who thinks an off-the-peg frame couldn’t possibly fit any rider perfectly, but I think on reflection the slight extra length should have been negated with more consideration to the length of the stem. I bought a pretty long 120mm stem when really this should have been between 90-100cm.

My commute recently went up from 11/12 miles a day to 15/16 miles a day, not much but enough that I started feeling numbness in my wrists. I think this is due to too much weight bearing down on them - and this in turn I think comes from a mixture of frame length, seat height and stem. So more on that soon.

Gears
Other things I might address is that I feel the gap between the mid gears is a little large and I barely use first. So I might make second gear first, and add one in the middle somewhere.

Chain
That chain bounce still rears its head now and then, particularly after cleaning. I’m sure I’ll have a few other anally retentive things to post too.

Summing up for now

I think its worth pitching a recent handlebar picture back with the original - I feel I’ve come a long way, perhaps disappeared up my own arse, but always kept to my goal of minimalism without sacrificing functionality. Third picture to help get an angle on proportions.

Initial 44cm Bullhorns:

New 36cm Bullhorns:

Initial Bullhorns at the top, new ones at the bottom:

The Three Amigos

Here are the three bullhorns for an idea of their difference. From the top its the original ones at 44cm. Then the mid-sized at 40cm. Lastly the smallest at 36cm:

I started riding on the 36cm which I initially assumed would be too narrow. Coming from the 44cm width they just felt ridiculously small. But I did love the narrow look. Over the week I really got into them. It surprised me somewhat after my initial reservations. At the weekend I put the mid-sized horns on and instantly realised I’d become addicted to the 36cm’s. A quick cycle confirmed this so back to the 36cm’s I went. 

With this decided I did the final touch of wrapping up the bars in lovely Brooks leather with their very quaint cork plugs:

The bars feel even better now with a much firmer grip - I don’t understand these guys rolling round town with metal only bars. It’s just not a nice ride.

Clearing the dashboard

I’ve now received my two alternative bullhorn widths. My gut instinct instantly says the 36cm is too narrow. My god its narrow. Still, I’m determined to ride both and not close my mind to either alternative until I’ve given both a good go. What is clear though is that to even entertain riding either narrower bullhorn I need to proceed first with my plan to rid the shifter of its own mount and incorporate it into the right hand lever somehow.

After a lot of flaffing around I had a eureka moment. And its so simple. So here’s my steps that got to the prototype mounted onto the 36cm bullhorns for my first set of trials:

1) Took off the old 44cm bullhorns, and removed the shifter mount (A) from the shifter (B):

A: Shifter mount still on the old bullhorns

B: The now uncapped shifter

2) Went to the hardware shop and bought a 25mm washer and a short metal plate with screw holes at either end, I re-drilled the holes to fit the shifter and brake bolts as they were slightly to small:

3) Fit the washer snug into the round cavity left by the removed mount. It also makes it more weather proof by sealing the internals away from exposure. Then using the existing shifter bolt I clamped one side of the metal plate then through the washer and onto the shifter. The other end of the plate was then simply clamped via the brake lever bolt and voila:

I’ve now ridden this set up for 2 days and can’t believe how effective its been. The 36cm bullhorns are very narrow but there’s something quite enjoyable about the ride. I’ll give it a few more days and then switch to the 40cm ones and see how I feel. I hate riding without bar tape but it’ll have to do until I’ve decided which bar to tape up. Below is the 36cm current setup - incredibly minimal and shiny now but not an ounce of functionality compromised:

Fortunately it’s approaching summer now and I rarely need my light as that’s currently not on the bars. I’ll probably work out a similar solution to the shifter but for the left hand lever. That can wait for now though.

Soma Cross Levers

They took a while to get here but I’ve finally got hold of a pair of Soma Cross Levers. They’re lovely. Hinged clamps make struggling to get them onto bullhorns a thing of the past. And the best part is they’re polished chrome in finish. The plastic of the Shimano’s was really starting to annoy me. 

There’s a train of thought that you shouldn’t ride with cross levers as your sole/primary braking system but I used up a few lunch hours going round bike shops asking different mechanics what they thought. The general consensus was that they’re absolutely fine. The impression I got is that this idea arose as they were designed originally for secondary braking and therefore shouldn’t be used as primary. But just because they were designed with something else in mind doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t be used differently. As ever, the internet can find a problem with anything. You just have to make a judgement call.

I also had to get new brake cables as the old ones that came with the Shimano brakes were mountain bike form. The cylinder that the brake pulls goes across the cable end, whereas road cables have the cylinder run along the same direction as the cable. The road ones then fit snug into the Soma brakes.