Hello, I’m returning to cycling and to this forum after several years. I used to be into road riding pretty heavily, although I did not race. I hung out on the Road forum quite a bit. I’ll introduce here since I do have an equipment question, and I tend to be a bit of a gear freak so I’ll probably end up on this forum more often than not.
I had two road bikes in the basement gathering dust and making me feel guilty: A titanium road bike and a steel frame set up as a single-speed (both Performance frames from around 1995). My youngest daughter likes to ride, and I mentioned that maybe she could ride one of my bikes. So I reinstalled the 105 8-speed components on the steel frame for her. She didn’t care for drop bars, so I put on flat bars with some nice Shimano pod shifters that I got pretty cheap on eBay. The bike turned out quite well, and daughter is very happy with it.
I liked the feel of that “new” bike so well that I decided to do a similar modification to my titanium frame. Got the same shifters (ST-2200) on eBay again; they’re a little clunky-looking, but work very well and are affordable. I got Campus pedals from Performance. They are platform on one side, and SPD on the other. I thought that these would ideal for me, since I wanted a more casual bike that I could ride without my road shoes. Eventually I’ll install the cleats on my road shoes to try the pedals. I’m thinking that I will need to get some mountain or casual cycling shoes that will take the cleats.
The first few rides were pretty good; I like the feel the bike in this configuration. However there is an issue with climbing. I really can’t stand and climb with these bars, it just doesn’t feel stable with the flat bar. Then I got the brilliant idea to add bar ends. These should give me a good climbing position, and I’m looking for confirmation of that there. I’m hoping that these will eliminate the last real issue that I have with the bike. I plan to get some this week.
Oh, I also mounted an almost new Brooks B17 honey saddle that I had. My frame was custom painted (back when I was riding) in a burgundy pearl, and the honey color looks great with it. Once I get the handlebar situation sorted out, I plan to wrap both the bars and bar ends in tan tape (possible Cinelli cork) to bring the tan color to the front of the bike. Yes, I do care about what it looks like. So that’s it for now. I’m looking forward to riding in the Fall.