Sunday, 30 October 2011
SET BRAKE/SHIFT LEVER HEIGHT
2. Slide levers up the bar, so the clamps are roughly at the foremost portion of the bend.
3. Lay a straightedge against the bottom of the drop (you can tape it in place, or just hold it with one hand)
4. Position each lever so the tip just touches the straightedge.
5. Slide a 5-mm hex wrench under the rubber brake hood and snug each clamp bolt just enough to hold the lever in position.
2. Align the lever hood with the handlebar drops.
3. Adjust the lever hood to your preference. Some riders prefer a slight inward cant, but straight ahead is the best place to start.
TIGHTENING TIP: The levers should be tight enough so that they won't slide when you put your full weight on the hoods, but loose enough so that you can still twist them in and out if you apply significant force—this lets them move in a crash instead of breaking.
FINE-TUNE HANDLEBAR/STEM POSITION
2. Rotate the bar so the hoods and drops feel comfortable
I COULDN'T WAIT FOR MY SON TO TURN SIX MONTHS OLD. Not because his smile became more infectious, even as his stream-of-conscious babbling seemed to edge closer to real vocabulary. Definitely not because he'd stop spitting up. (He didn't.) And to hell with early crawling.
I couldn't wait because the bike couldn't wait.
The streets of Los Angeles may not seem an intuitive choice for a first ride, or maybe any ride involving an overly eager dad and his baby. But my wife needed the car for a crosstown appointment, and Otto had to get home from daycare somehow. So at rush hour on an chilly April afternoon, I pedaled onto Figueroa Street, passing gas stations and markets and a local bottle shop whose neon sign boasted the Coldest Beer in Town, pulling a fancy new trailer behind my definitely not-fancy converted touring bike.
I was sweating as I buckled Otto, just rising from a nap, into the carrier. One of the little girls from the center watched from the front yard as I put my helmet on. "Is that Baby Otto's bike?"
I thought about it for a second. "Yeah," I said. "Guess it is."
"Cool," she said.