Non-Standard Modifications

Those dratted SRAM bits have been removed.

I spent Wednesday doing two things, mainly. One was dealing with the wet, sloppy return of Winter here. Shoveling snow which is the perfect consistency for snowman making is.......heavy work! Once in the morning, once in the evening. So, my day was sandwiched with that.

In between, I did some work down in the Lab. Not cleaning this time, although that is ongoing. No, this time I did actual work on bicycles. Yesterday's menu was all about documentation and swapping parts. Mainly that was focused on my Twin Six Standard Rando.

When I got the bike, initially as a review bike for RidingGravel.com, I liked the fizik handle bar just fine, even though it was based on a traditional road racing bar with no sweep or flare to the drops. However, after last Winter's shoulder injury, that bar was not comfortable for me at all anymore. I couldn't ride the Standard Rando for much more than a half an hour before my shoulder would get so painful I was in great discomfort. Flared and swept drop bars on my other bikes seemed to relieve me of this issue to a great enough degree that I considered swapping out the fizik bar to something else. First, I wanted to give my shoulder some time to recover. It did get better, but the fizik handle bar never did agree with me after the injury.

It had to go.

It doesn't take much flare and sweep to make my shoulder feel better, the Cowchipper has plenty of both.

Enter the Cowchipper Bar from Salsa Cycles. The Cowchipper is basically a "more of", the Cowbell Bar,  in terms of features. More flare and more sweep. I get along with my Cowbell Bar just fine with my shoulder, but I wanted to try a Cowchipper Bar on something other than a Fargo. I know I get along with a Cowchipper Bar since I use one on my Gen 2 Fargo.

So, that change was precipitated now since I had to get a bar to replace my aging Cowbell on my Black Mountain Cycles rig. (Another Cowbell Bar there, of course.) That and the Gevenalle stuff going on the Tamland made switching drive train parts and handle bars at the same time a good idea. It all came together and I made the swap of bars and bits on the drive train yesterday.

I replaced the shifters and derailleurs and also replaced the cables while I was at it. Once I get my hands on a new 11 speed chain that will be installed. Then I should be good to go on gravel rides. Well......once I get clear roads to ride on, that is. That may take a while.

In the meantime I decided to cruise up and down the snowy sidewalks yesterday afternoon to check how the Cowchipper would feel. And ya know what? I think we'll be getting along just fine.