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I rode my new bike home tonight, after the very helpful and pleasant David at Cheeky Monkey put it all together.
Introducing ... Astro!
http://static.flickr.com/46/124151006_30b5f98ef8.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/36/124151009_08f22e6907.jpg
Hopefully my old GT Timberline workhorse won't die from envy of its shiny new sibling,
SWEET RIDE!!!! Very cool.
I admit freely that I'm a newbie. So here goes: what kind of handle bars are those? I haven't seen them before. They sure look cool!
Like ladyfish, I am also curious about your handlebars. Would you also tell us about the rack, fenders, and lights?
Are you getting set for touring on this great-looking bike?
Lindell
I was looking for a bike that would do the job as not only my everyday commuter but also my longer weekend rides (which the GT just hasn't been suited for). And ultimately, yes, I'm looking to do some touring.
Hopefully this girl will do the trick.
The light is a 5W NiteFlux Vision Stick -- it's the only part of the whole ensemble that's made its way from the old bike. It's nice and bright and lets me see as well as be seen, which good for some of the woefully underlit roads on my way home (where is that pothole?). On the downside, it only gives about 5 minutes warning between "the batteries are running low" and "total battery death", so I tend to run an extra LED as backup. I haven't added that yet. The battery pack for the Vision Stick is that black barrel down near the waterbottle cage.
The rack's some variety of Topeak; the Allegro comes standard with a rack, but I got it upgraded to a heavier duty one because a) I tend to carry a fair bit of stuff back and forth from work, and b) well, thinking of touring at some point, as I said. I have a pair of Ortlieb panniers, but I generally carry just the one. Waterproof. Sturdy. Big. Fantastic. Not shown in picture :)
The fenders are SKS brand. I'm not really sure what else to say about them. It's coming up to winter here in the land of Oz, though, so I'm expecting my commute will involve rain.
And the handlebars ... they're called "Euro-style trekking bars" or "butterfly bars" depending who you ask. They're kind of a compromise between flat handlebars and drop handlebars. You get the hand positions of riding a flatbar with bar ends, and then a further-leaned-forward position that's (I imagine) like riding with your hands on the hoods of dropped handlebars. I just didn't feel comfortable with the idea of riding in traffic on drops - I'd like to keep my head up so I can see where all those pesky cars are - but on longer rides it really is nice to have a variety of riding positions.
The saddle's the stock standard for the bike; I'm quite narrow-hipped so I tend to do okay with men's saddles. We're going to see how it goes and if it doesn't work out, I'm to go back in and David will give me some other options to try.