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OT - modern lightweight with classic style

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completely understand, my daughter has the discontinued B68S on her upright
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(these switchbacks are a lot steeper than they look, and you need a gear below 30" to climb them)

I'm really not bolt upright on this bike, lean and vary sitting position with grade and wind. B17 is a perfect fit for me on this one - it's downright invisible.

On my drop bar road bike, I'm running Rivet Indy, which is narrower than B17, but not as narrow as a Brooks Swallow
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another cozy distance saddle, and the cut-out provides maximum cooling
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back to the cork grips. As I mentioned, they had 7 coats of spar varnish - most of the first 4 coats soaks in, and after that, you begin to see a thin buildup on the surface.
On yesterday's ride, noticed the varnish one one of the grips was looking sparse and wearing through.
So the grips got two more coats of spar varnish yesterday (think thin oil:( light buff with 000 steel wool, let the first coat dry and apply the second coat. Will buff them out today with a lint-free cloth.
 
I haven't added to this thread for awhile, but there are enough positive changes on the bike to show and tell.
Along the way, I upgraded the headset to Miche Galli needle-bearing, which gives this bike even more control.
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The first major change was adding aero position, which was really helpful yesterday on the exposed windy slope of the greenway summit.
I used a Nitto double lamp bracket and mountain bar ends, wrapped the whole thing:
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The wide compact double has always been persnickety making the 25T to 42T climb.
This functions as two sequential narrow 1x9, one for the road, the small ring for single-track and extreme grade.
Sugino XD2 triple, Sugino rings, bright-finish 6061, and Sugino bash guard on the outside position.
The 42T Sugino middle ring and Sugino bash guard both contributed to extreme chainring wear.
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After 10,000 mi, the Sugino 42T chainring was badly grooved.
The chainring geometry is at least part of the problem - the teeth are aligned in the center of the ramped chainring.
Also, it was possible to over-shift and get the chain jammed between the ring and outward-offset Sugino bash guard. Dialing out the overshift with FD limit just made the ramp-climb more difficult. I'm also using the correct Shimano CX FD to make the big climb and match the 42T big ring profile.
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I went looking for hard-anodized 7075 ring - there are really none out there for road x2 and less than 11-sp. chain.
So I settled on a 1x ring from Wolf Tooth. It's flat - no ramp - high square-profile teeth offset and flush to the inside edge.
Rated for 9-sp chain, and I didn't know if it would work, but I bit the bullet. Combined with a BBG bash guard, also simple flat with no offset, good anodize color, and cost-effective. Makes the big shift right now, no fuss, impossible to over-shift.
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What's with all the bags? This is my bike-fish rig. Drive to a state road where you're allowed to park, then pedal to the county road crossings where you're not allowed to park a car. A simple cafe cable lock to go around a small tree.
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I have two rod options that fit in the half-frame bag, a multi-piece fly rod, and a telescoping stream baitcaster.
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The big front bag carries my fishing bag and wading shoes (so I can pedal in dry shoes).

One more note - I went back to a double kickstand to keep the bike stable with a loaded front bag.
I like the new VO stand because the leg lengths are easily adjustable (Esge double requires cutting the legs, which you can't go back...).
It uses a long 3/8"-coarse-thread bolt to clamp the chainstays.
The thread pitch is so close, I easily tapped the kickstand plug hole to M10x1.5.
I swapped this much steel for a titanium bolt.
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Brought this old thread up because of a nice addition - ok, make that a couple.
Showed the half-frame bag above, already had a 6-pc fly rod that fits it, then the telescoping stream baitcaster above, found a nice 5-pc inshore size from Japan that also fits, along with a reel and opportunity lure box.


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The 15-l Ostrich front bag will fit a rolled-up 15-l Ice Mule with a six pack and a couple of gel ices.
But what I really wanted to show was this nice saddle bag and rack.
My old nylon Ostrich SP-731 7-l bag has been over-stuffed more than once but, especially, was weathered and UV-exposed to a pale grey that didn't look right with my nice newer canvas bags. It was also a booger to mount with both Nitto R-12 and B-70 wire cage to protect the brake cable.
There was also an occasional reminder on the back of your thighs.
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What I really wanted to show was my new 10-l Ostrich S-2 bag and Nitto Erlen bag support.
This neat rack has a set of saddles for your seat rails, and sandwiches in the seatpost.
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The bag is made for this rack, and has a lower pocket that fits the horizontal extension on the rack like a glove.
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Plenty of room for a fold-up tire, 3 tubes, all the tools you could ever need, and lunch.
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The 8-year saga of life with a bike - sometimes it takes that long to get it right.
Berthoud decaleur is back in stock in all varitions - it was absent and out of production in quill stem variants for 10 years.
I ordered one I need on New Year's Eve, horizontal stem bolt and 90-mm reach.
Their Christmas sale was still in effect - free DHL Express from France.
With VAT subtracted, mine came home for 97 euro.

To show you what I'm talking about, here's the one I bought more than a dozen years ago, and ended up on my International supporting Acorn rando bag.
IMO, best decaleur design ever.
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While the Berthoud decaleur is the best in function, it's also the best in non-function - it's clean and inoffensive when it's not supporting a bag.
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It replaced the two red straps supporting the giant 15-l front bag on my Viner.
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Rock solid, and looks good.
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I had a great ride with the Sunday group last weekend, 34-degree start, but I didn't take my camera out of the half-frame bag.
Since I was working on the Viner, and hadn't ridden it since Laguna Atascosa last Feb, dusted off, decided Vivian was the bike to take out.
Really enjoyed the ride and the group, and they lauded over the bike.
 
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