The V Chronicles

[ReklinedRider]

Ok I think this joker is complete, at least for now. I have to thank the good folks at TerraCycle www.t-cycle.com ; I hsd emailed them last week to ask when the Fastback Norback frame bag would be back in stock. They ssid it would be at least 6 weeks but said they hsd a couple stashed away and they would sell me one if i needed it to complete a build or whatever. So in just a few days it arrived and just in time to go on the completed V. What a great company!
Decided to stick w black bar tape. Colors seem out of place on this incredible black/white/graphite Vendetta.

 

[Robert O]

That's interesting, you have the shifters set up to pull as you pull the levers back. Which probably makes a lot more sense for the R2C's than for my TT-500's. I'm so used to the setup on my bullhorns or on aerobars, where you push the lever forward to pull cable.

 

[ReklinedRider]

I found that I like pushing the lever to move to a bigger cog or chain ring, especially the chain ring as it takes a good bit more effort than when releasing the cable tension to go to the small ring. I feel more mechanically advantaged pushing hard on the lever than having to crank back pretty hard. Plus that arrangement puts the housings on the trailing side of the 'handles' so I don't feel them when pulling on the bars.

For clarity, I'm pulling cable when I push the levers forward, since they're mounted backwards. They're also switched left for right since the R2C's feel better in my hand that way when mounted backwards. And, I like shifting the FD with my stronger hand. Wacky, I know. But it works very very well and feels, well, it just feels right to me. Same on this Sofrider:



Would love to see some close-ups of the bullhorns on your V.

km

 

[Robert O]

They look kinda like this:





The right (rear) shifter is in the next to the smallest sprocket, that's about where I set up to start riding. The left (front) shifter is on the small ring. You can see that the shifters are slightly tilted, that's a concession to getting the cable housings past the brake levers. The nice thing about this setup is that I can operate all of the controls without moving my hand more than a couple of inches, and most of the time without moving my hands at all. Shifting up as I accelerate just requires a push on the lever with my right thumb. Another advantage of the TT shifters is that when I am coming to a stop, I can dump the whole gear stack in about one pedal stroke. Even if I have to come to a quick stop at a light, I can still put the bike into a low gear to start off again.

 

[super slim]

Kline,
You have a lot more clearance between your hands and your thighs than I do with a drop bar!!!
In fact your hands are above the range of your thighs!!!
Can normal Ultegra shifters be used with this upside (Downunder) arrangement?

What rear taillights are you using as they look good in daylight!

 

[ratz]

They look kinda like this:

Which bars are those?

 

[Robert O]

Which bars are those?

They're Fyxation 31.8 Rodeo Pursuit bars. About 40 mm of drop, 40 cm width.

 

[ReklinedRider]

They look kinda like this:

View attachment 1961

View attachment 1962

The right (rear) shifter is in the next to the smallest sprocket, that's about where I set up to start riding. The left (front) shifter is on the small ring. You can see that the shifters are slightly tilted, that's a concession to getting the cable housings past the brake levers. The nice thing about this setup is that I can operate all of the controls without moving my hand more than a couple of inches, and most of the time without moving my hands at all. Shifting up as I accelerate just requires a push on the lever with my right thumb. Another advantage of the TT shifters is that when I am coming to a stop, I can dump the whole gear stack in about one pedal stroke. Even if I have to come to a quick stop at a light, I can still put the bike into a low gear to start off again.

Sweet setup! I like it.
That's what I too love about the SRAM bar ends; I often ride with my hands on the pods and can shift either way without moving my hands at all, and can dump into low gear in one revolution.
Boy that Cateye is a perfect fit for that space, too.
What kind of brake levers are those?

 

[ReklinedRider]

Kline,
You have a lot more clearance between your hands and your thighs than I do with a drop bar!!!
In fact your hands are above the range of your thighs!!!
Can normal Ultegra shifters be used with this upside (Downunder) arrangement?

What rear taillights are you using as they look good in daylight!

Slim, yeah i like the clearance. And I think that's a great nickname for this--the Downunder. I like it!

If by normal Ultegra shifters, you mean brifters, the answer is yes. I used SRAM Rival brifters on Silvio 1.5, and also used Shimano 105's on the Sofrider for awhile.

The upside of using brifters instead of bar ends is that cable housings never run on the drops at all. The downsides (if you can call them downsides; i never considered them so) are 1: turning your brake levers upside down and 2: you will have to switch the levers right for left and rewire your brain to shift your rear derailleur with your left hand and vv. As noted elsewhere, this takes almost no time to become second nature.

The taillight is a NiteFlux 400. Puts out a measured 400 lumens, solid on or blink mode. Can be turned down for night time.

 

[Robert O]

Sweet setup! I like it.
That's what I too love about the SRAM bar ends; I often ride with my hands on the pods and can shift either way without moving my hands at all, and can dump into low gear in one revolution.
Boy that Cateye is a perfect fit for that space, too.
What kind of brake levers are those?

The levers are Tektro RL-720's. I used a set of similar Cane Creek crosstops on my last bent (similar cockpit, but with RWD and a flip stem); just need to make sure that the levers have the right clamp diameter and the right pull leverage.

The Cateye just needed two long zip ties run through that gap between the clamp and the bars; it is a nice spot for it, but I wish I could find a good place to mount my cell phone. I use RideWithGPS for navigation, but standing the phone up above the bars seems so obtrusive.

 

[super slim]

Slim, yeah i like the clearance. And I think that's a great nickname for this--the Downunder. I like it!

If by normal Ultegra shifters, you mean brifters, the answer is yes. I used SRAM Rival brifters on Silvio 1.5, and also used Shimano 105's on the Sofrider for awhile.

The upside of using brifters instead of bar ends is that cable housings never run on the drops at all. The downsides (if you can call them downsides; i never considered them so) are 1: turning your brake levers upside down and 2: you will have to switch the levers right for left and rewire your brain to shift your rear derailleur with your left hand and vv. As noted elsewhere, this takes almost no time to become second nature.

The taillight is a NiteFlux 400. Puts out a measured 400 lumens, solid on or blink mode. Can be turned down for night time.

Its good to see that you are supporting an Adelaide, South Australia, (the BEST city in Australia!!!) based lighting company!!!!!

When I finally buy a new Silvio S30, I will buy a new Ultegra brifter with both cables following the handle bars! and try the Downunder arrangement on a Salsa Cowbell 3 bar!
My existing 2009 Ultegra brifter has the derailleur cable going out at 90 degrees, so is not an option!

 

[ReklinedRider]

Its good to see that you are supporting an Adelaide, South Australia, (the BEST city in Australia!!!) based lighting company!!!!!

When I finally buy a new Silvio S30, I will buy a new Ultegra brifter with both cables following the handle bars! and try the Downunder arrangement on a Salsa Cowbell 3 bar!
My existing 2009 Ultegra brifter has the derailleur cable going out at 90 degrees, so is not an option!

I meant to mention that NiteFlux is an Aussie company. It seems like there is another cool bike thing that originated in Australia....trying to think what it is....it's right on the tip of my tongue....hmmmm

Glad to hear Adelaide is the best city in Oz!

I will be interested to hear how the Cowbell bar works out. It does have a 12deg flare in the drops, I just wonder if it will be enough for inner forearm clearance against the shoulders/ramps of that bar in the Downunder setup. I would love to try the Salsa Cowchipper bar if and when it becomes available again since it has good flare and it also comes in widths. Right now the Soma Junebug feels pretty darn good though.

 

[super slim]

Does the Other thing on the tip of your tongue start with C, and end in E, and come from a place WAY OUT West, almost not part of Australia???

I am NOT biased about Adelaide, even though I was born and bred here!!!

The bars on the Silvio V1.0 are WTB Dirt Drops, with width at CL brakes 440 mm, max OA CL width of 550 mm, Horizontal flare 15 degrees, Drop 127 mm (to give max distance between the horizontal bar, which my leg touches every crank, and the hand grip area)

The Salsa Woodchipper that is on the Quest 1, had too much horizontal flare at 26 degrees, and 650 mm OA CL width, so I cut 35 mm off the grip length to bring it down to 580 mm width.

I NEED the extra width between the bars, NOT because I have massive thighs like a Tarzan, but my balance still requires large handle bar movements when going really slow at 3.5 kph!

I looks like Salsa has made yet another change to the Cowbell shape as the photo below does not look like the data I collected last year on handle bars (see attached pdf!!!)

Has anyone got a Cowbell MD2, and if so could they measure the CL spacing at the bar ends, PLEASE???!!!
Pretty Please with Sugar on It!!!

 

[ratz]

I NEED the extra width between the bars

Gary Sweep OS, is the widest I've had in my hands by a lot but I don't have any in house right now, Joe should be able to measure Rog's bars and chime in.

MD2 - 490mm at the Brifters mount point, 510mm at the end of the drops. (Rough measures) if you give me a picture of the exact measure you want I can get more accurate.

 

[super slim]

the measurement I was after is the centreline to centreline distance at the bar ends, and hopefully they will be approx. 550 mm for the salsa cowbell 3 so the same as my WTB MTB drop bars, NOT 420 mm as for these bars I TRIED to ride with initially on the Silvio 1.0.

 

[ratz]

Cowbell MD2 is 515mm
Midge is 555mm
woodchipper is 635mm

The Midge is about the same as the stock CB bars but with a lot more room for big thighs. My legs hit the CB bars if I set up the way I like. The Midge plenty of room; the Midge is pretty much a better Gary2 bar.


The Gary Sweeps same as wood chipper but squared off with out the huge flare 25 degree flare. These are great for people that want a ton of room.

• Tip-to-Tip across the ends of the swept portion of the bar, the Gary Sweep measures 636mm/25″.
• Tops measure 433mm/17″ between the drops.
• Flare: The hooks are flared out at 58° to the outside.
• Sweep: The extensions are swept outwards at 15° from a typical road bar position.
• Reach: Approximately 85mm
• Drop: Approximately 105mm
• Weight: 320 grams.

 

[super slim]

Ratz, thank you!!!!

 

[jond]

so at this stage ratz are you favouring the static seated hand position of the midge over the cowbell 2 ??

being slim with chicken legs i can cope with 440mm wide bullhorns. that is what you rode slim when you had a go on my bike.

so likely i could cope with 44cm salsa cowbells. going to try the original bar first before ordering as it does feel comfy. i really want my brifters not to splay out so much but run straight on like with the bullhorn for aesthetics and parking the bike. but the comfort may decide the issue.

 

[super slim]

Jond, the bars did not feel as uncomfortable as I expected in a straight line, but doing a 180 degree turn, it was funny/different! The big advantage for me was the good forward vision and the comfort of the seat, and how light it was!

My hands spend most of the time at the top of the drops just under the brifters (480 mm CL to CL), so my thighs are at the top of stoke, OR on long rides on straight roads, on the hoods (430 mm CL to CL) so my hands are clear of my legs!

When I am on a steep climb, applying LOTS of power, BUT only going slowly, then my hands are on the bottom of the drops (550 mm CL to CL), so there is a direct line from my shoulder to the BB, via my hands! (After installing the 100 mm extension).
The other time is when I am barreling down a steep and bumpy road, when Gravity IS my friend, then the extra 70 mm of leverage SEEMS to be an advantage!
The disadvantage of the bottom of the drops, is that as I get tied, my legs spay out more than normal, so rub past my hands in this position at 3/4 leg stroke, and unless I keep my finger nails trimmed to the bone, I have cut my legs up as I wear finger-less gloves 98% of the time, unless I am riding in USA or Canada!!!

 

[ratz]

Midge is equivalent to what I had on the last vendetta with minor difference.
Cowbell will likely be Mrs Ratz as it has the shorter reach she needs
If Midge doesn't work the Woodchipper might be on mine

Nothing settled yet; Until I can install a chain it's really hard to sit on the bike and figure out which bars work for what.