Show us your mixte!

[xeney]

This morning my husband surprised me by presenting me with my finished bike!



This is the bike we've been building since the spring, but what with school and the new baby, we put it on hold. I got to ride it this morning -- it's not a perfect fit, that Brooks B17s definitely has to go (it's too short, I'm going to get a regular B17 or else steal back the Team Pro I gave my husband), and the rear brake needs one more tiny part. And I really wish we'd been able to find a lugged fork, but the swap to 700c wheels made that impossible.

Still, I think it's awfully sweet and I was totally surprised.

[xeney]

Forgive the double post but I have two more better pictures from my husband's camera:






(That's Jeremy, holding Penelope up to see if the reach is too long for her!)

[KnottedYet]

Gorgeous! And it looks like the reach is juuuuuust perfect!

You say you wish you could find a lugged fork? Surly makes some lovely lugged forks. Looks like your mixte is black. So is my Cross Check, and Surly sells black lugged forks that match the gloss black of the CC.

http://surlybikes.com/forks.html (sorry, you have to click the picture of the CC fork, it wouldn't let me link to it)

Maybe it would match your mixte?

[xeney]

Hey, that is not a bad idea. The guys at the bike shop had recommended a chrome fork because I didn't want to paint the frame, but I will see if I can get a Surly fork to match it. It came with a Peugeot fork that matched okay but did not actually fit, even with the 27" wheels. Thanks for the tip!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Hey Xeney- GORGEOUS bike!!!
Hey, husband and baby are all gorgeous too!!!!! You are so lucky to have a partner who does wonderful bike things for you and encourages you.

I wonder why you chose those bars- can you tell us about them? One thing that strikes me when looking at the picture is that if you are hunkered down on the aero type bars, your girly bits are possibly going to be too squashed down onto the nose of your Brooks saddle.
Brooks saddles can be mighty uncomfortable when the rider is in an aggressively low aero/racing position. They tend to be most comfortable with a slightly more upright riding position in mind, so that your weight is largely back on your sitbones. If you have further trouble getting a Brooks to be comfy with your beautiful new bike, you may want to either try changing to a racing type saddle or changing body position by testing different bars. Just some thoughts. Squashed girly bits are no fun!


P.S. that red mixte does look large- looking specifically at the head tube length, it looks similar to my husband's bikes, and he is 6 feet tall and rides 60cm frames.

[Triskeliongirl]

Brooks saddles can be mighty uncomfortable when the rider is in an aggressively low aero/racing position. They tend to be most comfortable with a slightly more upright riding position in mind, so that your weight is largely back on your sitbones. If you have further trouble getting a Brooks to be comfy with your beautiful new bike, you may want to either try changing to a racing type saddle or changing body position by testing different bars. Just some thoughts. Squashed girly bits are no fun!
.

Lisa, I think it depends on which brooks saddle you ride. Mine is the finesse, which is a racing saddle, and I have no problem keeping my bars lower than my saddle and hunkering down in the drops. I think its the opposite, as long as your weight is supported on your sit bones and not girly bits, then you can roll your pelvis forward without pain. In my experience, the only thing that keeps me doing that is a bike with too long a top tube. When the top tube is too long, I have to raise the bars to decrease the reach, but that doesn't mean the position is optimal.

Xeney, I think she looks perfect!

[xeney]

It's actually a pretty upright ride -- very short cockpit there. No squashing of genitals. I have ridden a Team Pro on a much less upright road bike and that was the most comfortable saddle I've ever ridden. (And in fact I might put it on this one if I can get it back from my husband.)

I didn't choose the bars; he talked me into them, mostly for aesthetics. I wanted drop bars. I think these are gorgeous but they are going to take some getting used to -- the reach is fine, but steering is very different.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Lisa, I think it depends on which brooks saddle you ride. Mine is the finesse, which is a racing saddle, and I have no problem keeping my bars lower than my saddle and hunkering down in the drops. I think its the opposite, as long as your weight is supported on your sit bones and not girly bits, then you can roll your pelvis forward without pain. In my experience, the only thing that keeps me doing that is a bike with too long a top tube. When the top tube is too long, I have to raise the bars to decrease the reach, but that doesn't mean the position is optimal.

Oh, I see! I guess it's that I most often see complaints on TE about Brooks saddles squishing girly parts when women with racing bikes with really low bars try out the Brooks saddles. Seemed to me that they have the most problems getting comfy on Brooks. Maybe they would have done better with the Brooks Finesse?

I only have my limited experience- my bike has a top tube that's a bit too long for me, but it's also a more upright touring type geometry bike. I've always been comfy on it with my 2 Brooks saddles as far as that girly parts issue.

[7rider]

Hey, that is not a bad idea. The guys at the bike shop had recommended a chrome fork because I didn't want to paint the frame, but I will see if I can get a Surly fork to match it. It came with a Peugeot fork that matched okay but did not actually fit, even with the 27" wheels. Thanks for the tip!

Hey, Xeney. Nice bike. Have fun with it.
I haven't been following your build....is that SS or fixed?
Does the first set of pix (by the book shelves) have the old fork on it? It looks black in that first picture. Or is that just the light?

[xeney]

It's just the light -- we gave away the old fork when we replaced the headset.

It is built up as a singlespeed now because I am a chicken. The bike shop set it up fixed but I am not ready to make that leap. It's a flip-flop hub so I can change my mind later.