August 2021 - Upgrade time

I've been doing some research - trying to work out if my bike really is as comfortable as I can make it. 

It was billed as an entry level cyclocross bike when I bought it. 

If you have never seen cyclocross, then stop right now, do a quick search on you tube for 'women cyclocross' and wonder and those crazy people that start a bike race and end in a mud bath, with lots of peddling and running in between. 

Not being a huge lover of mud, I have not actually ever taken part in a race. I have been to a couple of training sessions though and marvelled at way others could jump off and on their bikes with ease and grace, without loosing any momentum at all. 

So why did I buy a cyclocross bike then? Well it was extra brake levers that attracted me. 

I also wanted drop handlebars as I was fed up with the sore hands that came with the one position on my flat bar bike,  but I really felt that I was just way too clumsy for the thin sleek road machines on sale at the time. 

I saw this bike - a Liv Invite and just loved everything about it - except the colour of the bar tape. 

Pink? I hate pink! Why does everyone put pink on anything designed for women? 

When I get that bike - the first thing I am going to do is change the tape to black. 

Now if you have been following my posts at all, you realise that the pink has stayed, in fact it has been totally embraced and accentuated over time. (The fact that it is also my house colour at school has helped somewhat too.)

So having never debuted in the glory of XC,  the bike has spent its time being my main ride - my commute bike and now my tourer. 

There are a couple of things that make it harder to use as a touring bike - the main being the lack of attachments to the front forks meaning that all the weight is on the back of the bike. The other issue is the handlebars are really narrow. So having watched a couple of You tube videos from another inspirational woman cyclist - Kajsa Tylen who is also vertically challenged, but has just tried a particular handlebar from Redshift called the Kitchen Sink. (Don't ask me why!) So when I found a set in a local bike shop, I decided to give them a go. They are a little wider than my current bars, they angle back towards the rider a little and sweep out making them much wider at the drops. All this should give a more stable platform that a gravel rider craves. Though I have no desire to ride gravel, I am hoping the extra control (and space) will be useful. 

So enough of the reasons why - lets get on with the job:-

First job - take the old tape off - I cant believe how mucky they look and they haven't been on a year! And, of course, photos taken to remind me which way to wind the new tape. 

It took a while to undo the hoods and the secondary brake levers, then remove the old bar. Putting them in the correct place on the new bar, I realised that I would need to put some new cables on, this again added to the job as a whole, but if its worth doing, then it's worth doing properly. So I set to and recabled my brakes. 

Then time for a test ride with my naked handlebars. 

I had bought some gel pads last year, but hadn't used them. So I set to and taped them into place. Then off for another test ride. 

When I was happy with the position of everything, I applied the new bar tape and was very pleased with the effect. 

But, of course, the proof of the pudding is in the eating and what better way to test than a Ninja training ride. Now I can't say this is wholly as a result of this change, but the resulting ride saw me hit the highest average cycle I've ever ridden. Impressed is an understatement.