Tag Archives: sykes

Like new shoes…

21 Monday May 2012

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I remember when I was a kid growing up in the Midwest, when someone got new sneakers, everyone would try to scuff them up.  They would reach out a foot and try to scrape it against your new white shoes.  At first you would resist, but I do recall feeling self-conscious about having bright, shiny shoes.  They always looked better after a few weeks of running around.

Today was one of those scuffing days for the new bike.  It was the first rainy commute ride for the Hunqapillar.  It rained pretty hard all the way into work, but it was nice and warm, so I really enjoyed the pleasant washing.  Everything gets mighty green when it rains, and the colors are much more vivid.

I got there and wiped off the grime, a bit, but definitely got to test out the fenders.  These Sykes fenders are flat and don’t have any “wrap” around the tire.  As such, they still do a good job of keeping the bike clean and most of the water off me.  There is a bit more splash, but it wasn’t bad – I arrived with just “damp” shoes.  Here are some pics I took on the way home.  The ground was still wet, but it only misted a bit, so I stopped on the Ravenna ravine bridge and snapped a few pics of the fully baked final build.

On the Bridge

Fenders are lookin’ red

This is a big!! bag

Home and Vivid!

Rearview

Proper Useful Bicycle

All demons sorted on this one.  Now it’s time to ride it ’til it looks used!

Harlequin Bar Tape

20 Sunday May 2012

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I’m starting to get the hang of doing the diamond pattern bar wrap.  I think the key is just doing about 10 bars to practice.  The last two went so well, I didn’t even have to look up the instructions (http://www.wastedlife.org/bike/harlequin/index.html).  First time for everything.  So…  There were two bars to get done.

I recently replaced the B115s on my Hilsen with some 41cm Noodles.   I wanted to give ’em a second chance, as I found I like a narrower road (drop) bar.  I chose my standard green and yellow tape as it gives good contrast.  Here’s a pic post wrap:

Clean cotton bar tape

I like the Nitto bar end accents!  I rode the bar this way with no comfort issues for a 20 mile commute.  Now onto the shellacking!  Here’s the bar after three coats of amber.  It should dull up a bit after being used/doused.

Post Shellac

OK – one down.  Now on to the Hunqapillar.  I did a bit of adjustment to the brakes to lower them a bit.  It’s always a good idea to ride the bike for a few miles before you tape it.  Especially when you do the coatings that will pretty much make your setup permanent for a while.  I had adjusted the bar angle on a couple of my commutes last week to get it just right, and had to bring the brake levers down a bit to compensate.  I wanted a similar them with the diamond pattern on the main flats, so I went with the red and yellow, and planned to use amber to darken up the red to get a similar color to the kidney bean red of the Hunqa.

Pattern Close-Up

You can just see the mahogany sykes fenders I put on this weekend.  Like!  I will do a write up on these in a future post after I ride them through a rain storm.  Here are some more views of the moustache bars, also with three coats of the amber on ’em.

Showing the Whole Bar

I used red twine to wrap the tape ends on the inside of the bar.  It was a good match for the tape, and is almost invisible.  The harlequin pattern is started with a rolled edge that makes twine (or electrical tape) unnecessary on the bar end by the shifters.  It’s very clean.

More Diamonds

Nice to have this wrapped up – now I can get on to riding the heck out of this beast.  The big bag/basket, fenders, and double kickstand added a few pounds to this bike, but it’s ready for some serious off-road camping, and heavy commuting now.  Can’t wait for the first S24O!!