something about...
well, my sister (and nephew) arrived from the UK Saturday night, with the aforementioned bike parts in tow. After half an hour of hellos and catching up, I excused myself and promptly broke out the multi-tool.
A few kling-klangs later and I had the saddle, seatpost, and most importantly, the Mary bar on. Took the bike outside around midnight for a test ride and tweaking. I kid you not, I had a grin on my face just pedaling around the village. The Mary's feel, for lack of a better term, natural (to me) and neutral (on the bike). Very comfortable. A quick stem swap with one If ound lying around the house, and we're almost set...
Decided to do some urban mileage/Mary bonding the next day, and it was off to the bike 'mecca' of Cartimar to score me some Deda grip tape for the Mary's. I initially wanted bar tape to take advantage of the additional hand positions provided by the bar. Now, this bike shop I frequent gave the flimsy reason that bar tape is for road bikes, and shouldn't be used on mountain bikes. I wanted to go "well, I WANT bar tape on MY mountain bike", but I decided against blowing my top. Their only saving grace was that they have an ace mechanic who knows the ins and outs of suspension fork tuning (for the Salsa), and Magura hydraulic brake tuning/maintenance...so, I head off to Makati and decide to spend my coin in a shop that knows my needs. Hehe. Guess what? I end up buying Cane Creek Lock-On grips, which are more secure than regular grips. These type of grips do not rotate on the bar, or even pop off. Thanks to the Mary's generous sweep, regular grips are not recommended (hence my idea of using bar tape). At any rate, the Cane Creeks are comfy, and are a good width.
As you can see, the Mary's look quite good.
Next project? Slapping on my new headset and custom fork, after I give the former a proper matte black paint job of course. Then, the true test of Mary will be in the dirt!
A few kling-klangs later and I had the saddle, seatpost, and most importantly, the Mary bar on. Took the bike outside around midnight for a test ride and tweaking. I kid you not, I had a grin on my face just pedaling around the village. The Mary's feel, for lack of a better term, natural (to me) and neutral (on the bike). Very comfortable. A quick stem swap with one If ound lying around the house, and we're almost set...
Decided to do some urban mileage/Mary bonding the next day, and it was off to the bike 'mecca' of Cartimar to score me some Deda grip tape for the Mary's. I initially wanted bar tape to take advantage of the additional hand positions provided by the bar. Now, this bike shop I frequent gave the flimsy reason that bar tape is for road bikes, and shouldn't be used on mountain bikes. I wanted to go "well, I WANT bar tape on MY mountain bike", but I decided against blowing my top. Their only saving grace was that they have an ace mechanic who knows the ins and outs of suspension fork tuning (for the Salsa), and Magura hydraulic brake tuning/maintenance...so, I head off to Makati and decide to spend my coin in a shop that knows my needs. Hehe. Guess what? I end up buying Cane Creek Lock-On grips, which are more secure than regular grips. These type of grips do not rotate on the bar, or even pop off. Thanks to the Mary's generous sweep, regular grips are not recommended (hence my idea of using bar tape). At any rate, the Cane Creeks are comfy, and are a good width.
As you can see, the Mary's look quite good.
Next project? Slapping on my new headset and custom fork, after I give the former a proper matte black paint job of course. Then, the true test of Mary will be in the dirt!
posted by 32by18 at 10:12 PM
2 Comments:
Looks like the bike is turning out quite nice! If you don't mind me asking, how much did the fork end up costing?
dang that's a nice headset! funky bars too.
hey, I wanna move to the UK and work there. can your sister give me advice?
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