The fine folks at Old Town Bike Shop transformed my Voodoo Wazoo ‘cross bike into a flat-bar townie yesterday in less time than it takes to ask, “Debit or credit?”
Why’d I do it? Well, I thought about going this route when I first rebuilt the bike as a seven-speed, single-ring, steel-fork, evil-weather, parts-box Frankenbike (it had been an eight-speed, double-ring, carbon-fork “race” bike with bar-end shifters until I stripped it to build the Soma Double Cross). But I didn’t have a flat bar and grips handy and instead went with a Salsa Bell Lap drop bar, Shimano 105 brake levers and a single Shimano 600 indexed bar-end shifter.
Now, with a bum middle digit on the left hand, I have trouble grasping a drop bar and operating its brake lever. And a brifter is out of the question — I have small hands and would have to use the battered birdie to shift. Owie.
Running a single-ring setup spares me the temptation of trying to shift into a gear I probably can’t push anyway. The smallish Real brake levers — salvaged from my mountain bike some years back when I finally surrendered to the inevitable and went to XT V-brakes — are easily operated with the index finger. Plus their light blue nicely complements the darker blue of the frame and my splinted finger. The cork grips give the injured hand a little more cushion than handlebar tape. And finally, a half set of Paul’s Thumbies let me turn that seven-speed bar-end shifter into a bar-top thumb-shifter so I can keep my right hand on the bar at all times. Pretty cool, eh?
When I got it home I took a quick spin around the block to see if the new setup worked for me, and lo and behold, it does, kinda, sorta, assuming I can avoid falling off in future. So maybe I can get outdoors again for some short spins while that finger heals.
The big question is: Can I fix a flat one-handed? It may be time for some Slime.
• Late update: Despite having this nifty new toy, I chickened out on an outdoor ride — I still can’t get a winter glove over the splint, which won’t come off until Tuesday — and instead did 75 indoor minutes on the Giant Tempo. The soundtrack was Led Zep’ instead of the Allman Brothers after Elvis Costello proved less than motivational. It’s exercise, but a poor substitute for the real deal, which I could see taking place without me through the living-room windows. Waah.
Mad Blog Media 
Looks nice, and thanks for the Paul’s tip. I am thinking of converting our old Trek tandem to flat bar use, and didn’t want to spring for all new control lever stuff. Looks like I could keep the bar-ends if I mount them with the Paul’s thingie.
Don’t do Slime. Instead use Stans No Tubes inside of your tube. It works much better and you don’t have to let all air out for it seal….
Rush Carter
CS West Bikes
By the way, O’G, your old Interbike screed on Las Vegas has a new life over here: http://maynardnet.blogspot.com/2009/11/problems-right-here-in-interbike-city.html
Patrick,
Cool Townie!
My townie passes for a mid 80’s road racer ’cause that’s what it was. I’ve considered leaving everything alone except putting on a straight bar. It’s a Mercian of Reynolds 531 with Campy (except for Simplex friction shifters). It’s got clips and straps.
What’s a good lock these days? Last I heard, a Kryptonite can be opened by a 5-year-old with a ball point pen.
Don’t you use a different bike with racks/panniers to run errands, or is this the new errand bike?
K, yep, the Paul’s Thumbies work like a charm, and come in road and MTB clamp sizes as well as eight- and nine-speed versions. And thanks for tipping me to Maynard’s link to my old screed; I haven’t seen him in quite a spell, despite his living in Mile High. I may have to pay a call on him one of these days, lower his property values.
Rush, I’ll take your advice. Frankly, I never liked Slime, having gotten a faceful of it more than once when I used it in cyclo-cross sewups. I don’t care about the extra weight of the anti-leak goo — I just don’t want to catch a green money shot in the chops and then have to fix a flat anyway.
Jeff, I’ve been using a simple Yakima cable lock, but I’m never far from the bike — I’m sure Rush can recommend better options. And yeah, the Soma Double Cross is now my pannier bike, with aspirations of becoming a light touring bike.
The Voodoo had flat pedals for a while — an ancient set of Lyotard 460Ds, sans Christophe double-steel toeclips and Binda leather straps, the ‘cross pedal of choice back in the day — but I have so much old crap lying around that it now sports original Shimano SPDs, which mate nicely to an equally elderly set of Specialized MTB shoes.
My wife has Paul’s Thumbies on her touring bike (a Surly Long Haul Trucker), and they’ve been almost trouble free. I say “almost” because we did have the bolt on the right side shifter come loose and cause sloppy shifting during a bike tour last year. I haven’t needed to tighten it since, but if it does come loose again I’ll be waiting with some blue Lock-Tight.
And whereas I have had good luck with Slime, I can also testify that the stuff tastes terrible. If you’re ever pumping Slime into a tube out of a five gallon bucket with pump that plugs easily, I suggest looking the other way.
Try putting a helmet bag or shoe bag over the hand. I had to do that for several months a few years ago. It works fine for getting out in the cold with a cast….
How about an oversize mitten?
Clap a cup holder on those flat bars, have a couple shots of somethin’ to keep your blood pumpin;, slap an oven mitt on that bum paw of yours, and get out and enjoy some sunshine you old dawg. That there rig of yours will really impress the chicks! Maybe not as much as the oven mitt, but who knows.
Of course, the question which might be unanswered is: why more than one gear if you have shifting issues? It is a “townie”, right? What kind of city limit sign sprints will you be doing with nine fingers? And, honestly, if your ‘excuse’ for the gears is “because we have overpasses in the central busniess district of Bibleburg” you need to ride more. I believe one E. Merckx said something about that at one point.
James, are there hills in Bibleburg or is it actually flat? I know a few people in BombTown who ride fixies/single speeds, but they aren’t fat old farts like me who have a history of patellar tendinitis and who take in more alcohol than they burn off.
God invented derailleurs for a reason.
Gents: There are hills. Many, many of them. Ride north or south, east or west, you will encounter hills — some steep, others modest, but hills nonetheless. The only way to ride a fixie around here is to be a CC student-slash-hipster riding from campus to Poor Richard’s to Tony’s to Wooglin’s and back, or be a trackie or old-school roadie who believes riding the fixed gear will help smooth out the ol’ pedal stroke during those long preseason base miles.
I’m a geezer and need gears, seven choices at minimum. Plus I had all the parts I needed, and I’m not cool enough to be a fixie kid.
Bros,
The single ring single speed concept is for functionality of a townie. As in “riding round town with no desire to shift.” Riding a fixie in said instance is just plain stoopid IMHO. But what do I know. I live in a town as flat as a pancake and I ride with a buddy who has a Rohloff 14 speed hub!! I don’t a singlespeed but for ‘functionality’ as a ‘townie’ or ‘commute bike’ it seems to do the trick…especially if the idea is to CRUISE.