Lung and I got to take one of our treasured bromantic fixie-crawls this past Saturday AM, an activity that was, until recently with the birth of my botlet, a regular ritual. But these days, a free morning is hard to come by, and horse-trading occurred in my loft to yield a negotiated 3.5 hour window of awesomeness time. And so we took it, meeting at Flora Grubb’s for coffee, cat fancy and some foliage admiring. Then, we were off into the foggy, windy San Francisco summer morning, to ride and bullshit around, and also, to visit bike shops. Lung has a few projects cooking, and my goals were two-fold: check out a few parts for the Ye Blacke Death build, and look at bar options for Fix-e. I very nearly decided to sell of Fix-e last month, as the frame is a bit small, and the cranks are lower quality than I want to use now… I thought, thin the herd a bit… but then, when I actually pulled it down, I couldn’t let go. It was my first project, and it stays. But I knew my annoyance with the bars was getting untenable. It’s had long bullhorns for about a year, leather wrapped, and fairly recently the bar end brake lever was joined by a finger lever up top. But the bar end lever kept popping out, the tape was a bit weather beaten, and frankly, it was just time for a change.

I was originally looking at three types of potential bars for Fix-e, and two shapes for YBD. Though I saw these at American when I visited, I was more taken by the steep drops they had in stock by NITTO. It’s funny, some stuff you can totally piece together by imagining it, checking dims, and ordering online or sourcing through ebay or whatever. But some things you need in hand. I knew I wanted to look at track drops, but I wasn’t sure what they would feel like. I mean, I’ve ridden on conventional and aero drops for my road bikes forever, but I never really examined the popular ‘pursuit’ drops popular with the alleycat types these days, given that I don’t race around town in the drops and such. But one thing I continue to enjoy is a narrow bar width, for negotiating traffic and a, fr lack of a beter description, different ride experience than my road bikes.

I quite liked some of the drops I saw, especially NITTO’s B-123 which comes as tight as a murderous 34cm width. And I realllly liked how that felt, even though there’s definitely compromise at the top, where I often rest my hands, even more so when utilizing an uncool brake lever. But I just wasn’t convinced among the three bar styles, and left empty-handed, to ponder. Additionally, Fix-e has always been my experiment bike. From builds in the first place to specific components, I try stuff out there, then commit to them on other projects. Wrongbike benefitted from several choices made through Fix-e experimentation. So, I was a little alarmed at the idea of using a $75-100 NITTO bar on an experiment. As I dwelled, I realized that the OTHER thing I wasn’t feelin on these drops was that they are proto-fixie style. You see that geometry EVERYWHERE online. And that’s fine, they rock, and if you’re an alleycat type, power to you. But I realized I wanted something different. I ruled out the third bar (a bar Lung turned me onto, called the Sparrow) and so I was set. But gosh, wish I could actually have them in hand in order to execute!

Fortunately, I got my chance, as I got Mr. Mhom duty for the later afternoon for about an hour, while Wifebot was at the salon. I was just driving around looking for a good place to park so I could get the botlet into the chest carrier and take a stroll, when I thought to myself, self? Why not the Mission… where there just happens to be another track shop… and bless her, the botlet stayed mellow while I was in there, long enough to get both the bars I wanted AND the necessary grips, and out before mcFussin got going.

It took some research to figure out how to apply the grips, however. I read about several approaches. I can tell you, direct application does NOT work. But I decided to experiment with two suggestions I read about in the track bike forums, and they worked perfectly. You soak the rubber grips in hot water, shake them out, then scoot them onto the bars that have been doused with Windex. The Windex and water evaporate fast, and the grips hold. PERFECT.

I’ll tell you what, I think the new drops look AWESOME. They ride well too, but I do think I’m still in for a taller stem. That aggressive a riding position works for awhile, but you need to be able to sit up and admire the EHPs too, you know? But super stoked. Different cranks and tyres and I think Fix-e’s got a new lease on life!

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