a midway bikelog

When i first got the Redwood, i’d been riding a lot of old Raleighs and other ’70s bikes with short top tubes, so the Redwood felt a little too long. So, not long after i bought it i switched the 12 cm stem for a 10. Now that i’ve had more time on other properly fitting bikes (in particular the Surly, which was set up to fit like the Redwood), i needed to stretch out again. In the meanwhile though, that stem had found duty on the Lotus, which has an incredibly short top tube, so the long stem helped. I dreaded spending a night swapping stems between the two, mainly for all the fiddly bar wrapping to do. I like doing the work, but i’ve just been too tired to tackle it.

Last night i went straight out to the garage once the kids were asleep and got ‘er done. The bit fit is much better (and the Lotus is still fine too), and i was inspired enough to even do a nice little diamond weave on the bars:

It’s the same overall pattern i have on the Crosscheck, but brown and black here instead of white and black. It looks good, shades of argyle or something. I might even have to shellac it, though i still like the feel of plain cloth.

Here’s the full shot:

all set for the next adventure :-)