Say hello to Jake

November 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I had a dabble with putting drop bars on my Spesh Sirrus a while back. It didn’t really work - STIs and MTB BB5s aren’t a great match. And I didn’t put enough time into getting the bars and levers right.
Anyway a Jake came up on the STW classifieds at a price I couldn’t resist. So here we have it. I reckon it’ll be perfect for the less knarly trails. Now the only questions is whether the Avid Shorty Cantis are up to the job!

Aug

1

Flat bars good - drop bars bad

August 1, 2007 | Leave a Comment

I may have recently succumbed to the fashion of riding single speeds but I have railed against another. I converted the Sirrus to drop bars to give that cross bike feel. It was a compromise instead of buying a new cross bike. After a couple of rides I realised that it wasn’t’ really for me. The riding position was awkward and my arms were too close together.

So it went back to Richard’s and had the flat bars reinstated. Its now back to its best - a comfortable to ride flat bar road bike with low gearing to help me get up hills. Anyone want to buy a pair of STI 8/triple shifters?

Jun

27

Cross Sirrus - Its back!

June 27, 2007 | 1 Comment

Well its arrived. I picked it up from Richards at the back end of last week. I’ve only managed one decent ride on it so far and to be honest, I’m not 100% convinced I like it.

Getting on it for the first time made me realise that I haven’t ridden a drop handled bike for nearly 20 years! The cockpit was a bit long and so I moved the seat forward an inch or so which helped. The brakes also need some fine fettling as they have developed a rattle which is driving me bonkers.

So hopefully I’ll get out on it again later this week and report back on how it performs after the niggles have been sorted.

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