So I'm apparently going back to drop bars and downtube shifters. Lowering the Alba bars has been so nice I find myself bending my elbows so much and reaching out I may as well just use some drop bars. I have some Zipp Service Course 70 Xsomethingsomethingsomething coming. They have the sort of flair that the Nitto Dirt Drop has, but with less reach, less drop and the drops hand position a little more flat rather than curved. It's a bead blasted silver, not my favorite but surely not the least ! The brake levers mount straight,/vertical not flaired, just the drop ends flair. 46cm width @hoods and 52-54 @ends. Good enough !
More and more I find more and more stuff I've tried from Riv, like higher bars for example, well it was good up to the point of raising drop bars to the saddle height in the 90's early 2000's. Beyond that the bikes handling goes wonky from what seems natural to me. Even swept back bars, a little bit is okay, like the Alba IF you have a long stem AND sufficient reach inherent in the frame itself. Big IFS ! I say the "raise your bars for every decade you age" thing is also a no-go. Why would you do that ? Planning for a limitation with another limitation is the very limitation that the planning for the limitation can't compensate for, so what's the point ? !!! ((( laughing wholeheartily ))) I'm as if not more flexible/corestrong than I ever was . The big wide bar crayze ... and the big wide tires, the big wide cassettes ..... sheesh ... all of it .... kaput ! Wide-r is only good to a point, to each their own to reveal that as no one can do it for you. I remember my 1983 Stumpjumper and how I disliked the 66cm bars that I got after mine were damaged in a botched theft attempt in Arizona(don't ask as I don't know what they were doing !). I went to a 56 or something like that and that was better but even to this day while I like the "idea" of mountain bikes I find many of the specialized parts just not to my liking. My idea of a nice mountain bike is one that feels like a road bike but with cushier tires. Not a cross bike, not a gravel bike, a this that or the other bike ...... nope. How about* just a Bike that does Bikey stuff* ....a do it all Bike for all seasons and terrain ..... *A Bikes Bike !* Back to the Franklin Bikey ! I'll have to get some new brake levers and the only ones I have are Campy NR/SR and a Shimano 400 aero, both of which were always too darn small for my hands. Nowadays they make the bodies much bigger ! I saw some NOS Shimano 105 Golden Arrow downtube shifters for sale. What's tempting to me besides the gold painting of the engraving is they use a star washer in there to prevent loosening, nice ! Dia-compe Ene has a serrated Campy look-like set with ratchets. If I knew they held without heroics I'd consider those. I still have my Campys, I may try some different washers in those first. I've got a bunch of the Sprint shifters but those too always loosened. Only the sweet Power thumb Shifters form SunTour DON'T slip ! I know there's loctite hero-glue, but ... well .... that's just it, there's "but' with all those shifters that don't hold their tune ! While I have 2 sets of Phil FW hubs, I'm considering some Suntour 135mm Grease Guard FW hubs.... call me crazy ! I love 70's and 80's era parts. I could lengthen my Specialized to 135mm with wheels MFG axles, or I could not.... you know how that goes. The only axles I ever broke were Campy and I weighed a whole lot more then, and on 25mm tires pumped up to 100 psi. Campy axles, like their crown races, were not the best. I may change the crank to an Andel triple, the RSC6's, silver, 150mm, 110/74. I can order directly from Andel in Taiwan. I have some black ones shortened by Bikesmith Designs, but Andel makes them in silver 150mm , so I can't say no ! If not on this bike then on my upcoming custom, maybe with half-step gearing again. That's all folks, for now ! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/7e502a0e-cc95-46e7-8de4-dc31c718aebfn%40googlegroups.com.
