Bike Work Day, Including a New Stem For the Drop Bar Trek

I had today off, so I figured I'd do a little bike work. One of the kids who works down at Kaladi had dropped off his vintage 10-speed, last night, for new tires and adjustments. As I moved stuff around in the shop building (getting my drum set out to loan to Tony H., from work, so he and his grandson can play with it), I found a set of nice alloy 27" wheels. I decided to use them to replace the steel wheels which were on the bike.

 Here it is, with the new tires and hoops.

 It's a good looking bike, and has apparently been repainted. No sign of a brand name, anywhere on it.

 Decent-looking lugs, but nothing fancy.

Cottered cranks and steel wheels put it in the lower-end of price points, but it's still a pretty sweet ride (especially now, with the alloy rims and six-speed freewheel). I can't believe that he scored this bike for $20.00, at a yard sale! It's been a long time since I found a bike this nice, at that price.

As I was working on the 10-speed, the mail came. In it was my new 1-1/8" quill, dirt-drop stem for the Trek. Of course, it got installed, immediately.

 The new stem got the bars up high enough that I can ride in the drops, pretty much full-time, if I want. That is my preference, on a drop-bar mtb. This setup is very similar to the setup on the XO-2, which Carol has on a what amounts to a permanent loan...

Carol dropped it off, the other day, to get a broken spoke nipple replaced, so it was handy for comparison. With her seat position, the drops are almost as high as the seat, on the original Gary Bar (which is very similar to the Midge bar on the Trek). With the seat raised for me, they are a couple of inches below the seat. This worked for me for many, many miles, on-road and off, when I rode the bike. I think it will work just as well on the Trek.

The Bridgestone is a size too small for me, actually, and the Trek is a nice fit, so it will probably actually work better.

 The new stem is at it's minimum insertion, but it doesn't look too awkward, the way stems sometimes do. I think the black color might help it, a bit, in that instance.

 The two-bolt removable faceplate made the swap simple. The temporary stem had a similar faceplate, so it was not necessary to remove the bar wrap and brake lever.

The hoods are pretty useless as a hand position, but I wouldn't use them much, even if they were reachable. I can still use that position to climb, if I want, but I will be in the drops in any situation where I need brakes.

I had a couple of other projects to work on, but a sudden thunderstorm shut me down. That just leaves me something to post about, later...

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