Blog Entry
New bike
I present my old bike's hot new sister:
- Surly Pacer frame
- Shimano 3 speed internal hub
- Alternate click-shifter so I could keep the drop bars
Detail of shifter:
Larger than I thought it was, but is quite manageable.
Apparently look them a lot of work to get all the stuff to go together. Apparently removing the coaster brake from the hub and grinding the shifter to fit the dropouts took a solid 8 hours of work.
There's still quite a bit of fiddling to do. I rode it around for 30 minutes there to test it out, then promptly had to ride home and head to campus because I was running way behind. Saddle needs adjustment. The gear ratio is a bit off for my liking, so I'm going to need a bigger chainring, but will ride it around to get a better feel. Ed mentioned that it takes something a bit non-standard so I should probably bug Nik to see if I can get the other ones that they gave him along with the bike.
Needs mudguards, which I completely forgot to mention when I went in there at first, but are easily obtainable from MEC. And, I want to switch to clip-on pedals, but haven't gotten around to getting the shoes, due to working during most of business hours during the week. And, of course, the standard stripping of all the logos and stuff.
I'm beyond pleased with it. Even accounting for how shitty my current bike is, this one is awesome. Will take a couple days to adjust to narrower tires, drop bars, and the fact I need to coast when shifting. But, it rules. So light, solid, and smooth riding. It's EastVantastic, in the best way.