Old Rides, New Trick (Bits)

I've been mucking around with the setup and componentry on some of my old bikes recently. First off the clown bike has had a makeover

 The major differences (apart from a long overdue clean) are flat pedals and a bling front wheel

The flat pedals are a bit of an experiment to get my skills up. Generally what happens with mountain bikers is that they start with ordinary pedals (aka 'flats'), and the thought of clipping yourself into clipless* pedals seems crazy. Over time they get more comfortable one the bike and they're also encouraged by all their mates to move onto clipless. Eventually they succumb and initially will nervously pedal around the nearest park, practicing disconnects. Twisting their feet when stopping quickly becomes second nature and they venture out in public, normally having a few classic 'forgetting to unclip' stacks at the most embaressing times (outside the office, at the carpark after a ride, at the lights in front of a car-load of pretty girls).

That's pretty much it for a lot of riders. Clipless pedals give you more power, stop your feet from bouncing off the pedals on rough stuff and allow you to pull the back wheel up easily. So they become a must-have component. But they also make you lazy. Switching back to flats makes you work the bike harder, makes you feel more at one with the bike and just generally feel good. And the funny thing is everyone who is used to clipless reckon that switching back to flats is crazy.....

I've also made some tweaks to the Five, my all mountain / trail bike

  

 It's now got a shorter stem and wider bars - 710mm wide

These feel ridiculously wide at first, especially when you're used to 660mm wide bars. That extra 25mm a side feels like it's going to clip every tree beside the trail. But wider bars theoretically give you more leverage on the bike and allow you to control & turn the bike more effectively. To be honest they're a bit of a fad at the minute, but they feel good.

I tested the clown bike out at Daisy Hill on Monday afternoon. My feet got a bit light on the pedals at times, the back wheel took a battering and my shins were itching in fear the entire time - if you slip off one pedal your entire body weight drops onto the other one, spinning the empty and pin-studded pedal around until it impacts into your unprotected shin at high velocity. But it generally felt good.

And today I took the Five out to Mt Joyce. I was feeling a bit empty and tired so struggled a lot up the hills but coming back down was a blast. So much so that I snapped a spoke in my back wheel. Pretty happy with the bars, although we'll see how we go somewhere with some narrower tree-squeezes. 

Of course at the end of the day it's not your bike but how you ride it, as demonstrated by Gordy on a fully rigid (ie no suspension) singlespeed (ie no gears). He lead the way up most of the hills and was happy to get gnarley on the way back down.....

*sigh*. Maybe one day.

* Bike Nerd fact. Originally riders would uses clips & straps to attach their pedals to their feet. Eventually quick-release style bindings were developed which use a cleat screwed into the base of the shoe. When this is twisted this cleat has a cam which triggers a spring and unclips the binding. These didn't need clips - hence 'clipless' pedals.