Make it last a little longer, Longer with Big Red!

[oxysback]

Sweet bike! LOVE the tires.

[Cataboo]

Love the tires (and the bike...you do have a knack for creating cool Franken-bikes) and dream of blue reflective ones for my commuter beastie (but I wish they made them smaller than 70x37).

But 22tpi gives me pause. How do those tires ride? My experience with low tpi tires (Hutchinson's) has been that they are hard, harsh, and loud. Does the low psi rating soften them up? How do they roll?

Okay, I asked a friend who'd bought the blue 700x37's after I found the sweetskinz for scar. He commutes about 8 miles roundtrip in Idaho with about 250 feet of vertical and has been using them for a few months.

He said:
huh... I don't know that I'm much of a critic RE tires.
Mine roll fine. Not loud that I've noticed.
I run mine on max psi.

Before he was running - Bonty Jones stock tires, then a cheap Ritchey off-road cross (horrible on-road efficiency and handling), and a Conty touring tire on back. The ritchey tire was very square, thinner than the sweetskinz but rides much fatter.

[Catrin]

Sweet! She looked great before but those new tires turns her into a speed and fun machine even when at rest

[Cataboo]

Drtgirl's white jett saddle is on its way to me, Big red may end up with it because a white saddle would work on him way better than the other bikes.

The racks and fenders have been sitting waiting to be put on for a while, so that might be part of the weekend project.

I'm looking around to see if I have any white handlebar tape that I could mix into candy cane stripe it.

[Tri Girl]

I now want to candy cane stripe the handlebar tape. But that might be approaching the kingdom of too far

Too far? What in the world is that???
GO FOR IT!!!!!

[Bike Chick]

Holy cow! You're a long way from too far.

[Cataboo]

Oh, we're completely working on over the top now.

Well, I'm trying to figure out what to do for the handlebar tape. I had some yellow, and I was trying to get stripes and it just wasn't going well getting it even and whatever. Yellow handlebar tape looked better than the red that's on there. I swapped off the red cage to a yellow cage a friend had given me.

So now I need red & yellow handlebar tape and can't decide whether to get stripes or speckles. I'm leaning towards the stripes, but it's got that blue stripe.

[Susan]

Couldn't you use a red and a yellow tape and overlap the two colors while you put it on? I haven't actually tried this, but I use this technique when taping hula-hoops

[Cataboo]

Couldn't you use a red and a yellow tape and overlap the two colors while you put it on? I haven't actually tried this, but I use this technique when taping hula-hoops

I tried, it wasn't going well getting the handlebar thickness even.

[Cataboo]

Alright, I waited to change the handlebar tape till when I had to change the brake cables to change the brakes. I still haven't put on the rear rack, since I haven't needed it yet.

I would love to hear a driver claim that they couldn't see me on this bike (except, I don't actually want to get hit to hear thAT)

[Catrin]

Very, very nice and eye-catching!

[Cataboo]

I probably shoulda had the frame powder coated before doing all that. But I like the red to dark red fade, even if it's chipped. And somehow this was supposed to be a budget build.

[emily_in_nc]

Love it, Cataboo! I am a color person so I really enjoy the eye-popping brightness of your ride. Way cool bar tape, too.

[Kerry1976]

That is one nice looking bike.

[Tri Girl]

LOVE the bar tape!!!!