Bolt Upright

In my quest to transform my Trek 820 from mediocre (at best) mountain bike into the Ultimate Bike Path Warrior, I made the great leap of swapping out he bars. Now, to some folks, the so called "leap" of swapping bars is akin the the "leap" rolling out of bed in the morning, but to me, it's kinda special. So I ordered a set of "Tourist" bars from Velo Orange. I did not want to ditch my trigger shifters in favor of something more "traditional" like thumb friction or bar end shifters and I am glad to report that they, as well as the 820's original grips fit right on the bars. The whole process was, for the most part, painless. I had to re-rout the cables a few times and, truth be told, making them a slight bit longer might not be the worst die that I ever had. I had to wait two day to get to take it for a ride. It was sort of a torture.

Now, if you follow my blog at all (and I know that you don't), you might remember that a couple of years ago I had in my stable, for a short time, and Olde Tyme English Threespeed. I didn't like it that much. Unlike in The City Proper, out in my neck of the woods, there are a LOT of hills. I found that the tried and true Sturmy Archer hub just wasn't what my Big Bottom needed to get around. I also remember, now, feeling as if I were perched up on high with the bikes riding position. As if I were gliding effortlessly amongst the Common Folk and that they should all look up at me with bent necks as I rode by. I remembered this because that's exactly the feeling that I got as I test rode the UBPW.

Now, I certainly expected a more upright riding position on the re-styled Trek. It only makes sense. What I did not expect was how much of a difference it would really make. It was very sit p and beg. A little too much so for my liking actually. I don't have the bars set level either. There is a fairly good angle at the grip end to make my hands fall more naturally onto the ends of the bars and around the controls.  I found myself choking-up on the bars some time and even sliding forward on my seat. I guess the weight distribution felt off, too centered on thereat of the cycle. I'm going to adjust the angle some more I think. Maybe move the seat forward a little, which seems counter intuitive to me: I brought the grips closer, the seat should move farther away, right? That's not how it feels when I'm riding it.

Another difference was that the Three Speed had a nice, sprung, leather Brooks Saddle. That would have been nice to have yesterday. Not imperative, and if the riding experience had not been so strikingly familiar, I might never have begun to pine for that seat. But pine away I did, like a dead parrot for the fjords.  Again, adjust before replace. Not afraid to do either. I have WAY more invested in this bike in terms of parts and labour that I do in the actually bike! I might be back in the V.O. catalogue before long.

There is a female cyclist who's blog I follow. She began her riding adventures on three-seep commuter type bikes. She rode to get to the store, get to work and began writing to share her experiences on it. As she began to get more into riding though, she began to bend forward over her bars. She got diamond frames and drop-bars and she began to write about how she was using different muscles and how it was effecting her riding. I had no idea that it would work so stunningly in the reverse mode! The lower third of my thigh muscles took it the hardest. Not all that bad, but I only went about four miles with no real climbing to show for it. Seriously: weather it was a natural by-product of the riding position or some sort of flashback the that poor outclassed three speed, riding around on theta bike with those bars did NOT make me want to go up hills with it. Not really an absurd fate since this bike's main function is to pull a 3 year old in a trailer along bike paths and go to the grocery store every now and then. Still, at least I should try a hill or something I guess. Now, here is the weird part. I felt like I wasn't going very fast at all. However, my GPS motored and computer generated average speed was actually higher than is normal for me. Sure, there were no climbs to drop it down but neither were there descents to raise it back up. EIther way, I would have thought that I would have had a lower number for an average.

The verdict? I liked it. I'm pretty sure that I will be keeping these well made and super comfy bars on my bike. The chrome looks a little silly coming out of the black stem, but other than that these bars are a win and a half.