Bridget Gets A Facelift

One of these days I will write a long term review of the stalwart in my stable, my Surly Cross Check -- I promise. I bought this bike in October 2010 and she's been my daily commuter and faithful friend. The fit isn't perfect but with a few tweaks to her over the years and, to be fair, improved strength, flexibility and better posture on my part, we've sort of grown into each other. 

I mentioned a few tweaks. The significant transformations that Bridget has gone through are recorded in the series of photos on the My Bicycle Family page. Meanwhile from time to time she gets a few minor updates. 

I'm not quite sure how to classify yesterday's 'operation' -- transformation or minor update? Basically, Bridget got a whole new "head"! This was in fact the final, most time-consuming, stage in a series of changes that saw all three contact points significantly changed. 

We'll call this stage "The Facelift". 

Bridget has sported On One Midge dirt drop bars for nearly two years. These were fitted in the summer of 2013 when I started working for Sustrans at the Travel Choices Hub. While my commute was entirely on paved roads, the cycling I was doing during the course of my work ranged all over local roads, tracks and trails on a wide variety of surfaces, including spots of deep loose gravel. Dirt drop bars gave me my preferred default position on brake hoods but also offered a wider stance when the going got rough. I love these bars and wouldn't hesitate to put them on another bike (or iteration of this bike) if mixed-surfaces regularly feature in my life again in the future. 

With the various light brackets removed, the "make sure the lift door is shut" sticker was revealed. I had completely forgotten about that. That brand of humour seems to fit in with Surly's unique persona. 

Much as I love these bars, I no longer ride anything but paved roads these days. I love my new commute to Harpenden train station. It consists of three miles of country lanes with three turnings at t-junctions (rarely need to actually stop), one set of traffic lights at a crossroads (where a bicycle is enough to trigger the phase to green), one more t-junction with a right hand turn onto a busy A road, which then delivers three more miles I can take as fast as I like, with a few side roads but in terms of junctions two mini roundabouts, two sets of traffic lights and one zebra crossing. 

Over the past 4-5 weeks, Bridget and I have been running this six miles in about 25 minutes inbound (cumulatively downhill with a few lumps at the beginning) and 36-37 minutes homebound (cumulatively uphill with one long slog and then those lumps again).

Bridget is not a featherweight but basically, her job description is now Road Bike With Luggage. So some adjustments have been needed to take her from being an all-terrain tank to robust road commuter. 

Two weeks ago, I swapped my old Brooks saddle for one of the Selle SMP models that seem to suit my undercarriage so much better. Then last week, I swapped the platform pedals (huge ones that could handle the enormous footprint of my Brooks Adrenaline trainers) for my spare set of Speedplay Light Action pedals (the same ones I have on my Enigma). 

Immediately Bridget and I felt smoother and faster and I was arriving home less fatigued. (I put that down to improved knee stability from the foot retention more than anything else.) But I found myself wishing I could shift my hands to the tops of the bars for more than a few seconds at a time. The tops of the Midge bars have a round profile of standard 26mm diameter. I was missing the "wings" of the FSA bars I have on both the Enigma and Puch. 

It so happened that Adam had just such a bar stashed away in the garage. It had come with his Planet X ti bike when he bought that a few years ago. Oddly, the bike is a size 56 but the bars on it were only 40mm wide, much too narrow for Adam. He removed them after less than 100 miles in favour of a nearly identical but wider set. As they were FSA Wings, he thought them worth hanging on to and I am so glad he did.  

Temporarily Headless

With the Midge bars removed, we noticed a bit of dampness inside the stem. So Adam removed the stem and all the spacers to check for rust. Yes, there is a little but only on the surface just around the hollow where the stem meets the steering. A quick clean (not enough to expose fresh metal) and squirts of GT85 put matters to right. 

Next came the fiddly job of removing the foam adhesive still stuck to Adam's old FSA bars.

After a bit of experimenting with the rotational position of the bars and "toe-ing in" of the brake levers, I left Adam in peace to fit Cinelli gel pads and brand new Fi'zi:k tape. He is a perfectionist about wrapping bars and I really ought to have been indoors studying rather than messing about with bikes. 

Some time later, he came in and told me he was done -- and then made sure he told me all the little things that were not quite perfect before I got outside, apparently to forestall any criticism!  I have never attempted fitting bar tape though it's one of those things I really should learn, so am in no position to criticise! The basic problem Adam always complains of is that the wrap is never long enough for him to space the degree of overlap exactly the way he would like. 

This is one area where he is definitely more picky than I am! I told him so, which made him laugh, as I am notoriously fussy and he is famously laid back! 

So here is Bridget with her new bars and red tape. I have never had coloured tape before so this is rather a departure but I think it looks rather smart. 

I have a few reservations which only time will settle. One is that the most comfortable wrist position for me with my hands on the "wing" portion of the tops of the bars meant rotating the bars significantly downward, which puts the 'on the hoods' position a bit lower than my saddle. This is a new position for me. However, the bars themselves have much less reach than the Midge bars, so the overall reach is reduced which somewhat offsets the perceived increase in how stretched out I feel. Positioning the brake levers themselves was somewhat of a challenge. The bar is designed with the idea that the levers would be fitted at the top curve of the "ergo" section". But doing that would move my hands even further forward and down, which I did not want. So the levers are sitting a little high, which somewhat "shortens" the area of the hoods where I put my hands. One of my favourite things about Tiagra levers is the long flat surface area and this is now slightly compromised. But I seem to be okay with a similar outcome on the Enigma with Shimano 105 shifters, so this may not be a problem for me after all. We'll see. 

In the course of her facelift, Bridget also got new brake cables and new rear brake pads. She got new front pads a couple of weeks ago. She is amazingly still on her original cassette and chainrings, having had only one chain replacement over more than 6,000 kilometers, and everything still looks in very good shape. 

Every day while cruising along, I find myself thinking "this is such a good bike". She has proved to be worth looking after and doing whatever tweaks seem indicated to keep us working well as a team.