Psycolist
NINJA BYKALIST
- Location
- North Essex
A few years ago I had a cruiser style bike that had been handed down to me as a gift. The owner no longer wanted, it was a heap and the only good thing about the bike was the riding position :>) It just felt RIGHT. The bike itself was a total dog and it didnt stay ridden for very long before I passed it on to another deserving buddy, who after a very short while, scrapped it. The memory of that bike has meant that I have been trying to re-create that riding position on my current beast. I have tried a multitude of different stem - bar combinations at a number of different heights. I thought that my last combo had got it licked. I was using a pair of alloy BMX bars with a 5.5inch rise and a very gentle backsweep with an Acor stem riser. Then, in a bit of idle searching, I came across the bars I think that the cruiser was using. So, I took a punt and had them delivered today, A.M. By 11.30 I had them fitted and after a couple of false starts set out on my familiar lunchtime loop. Within a mile I was grinning from ear to ear. My loop is a distance of 12 miles and usually takes me exactly an hour ( i'm no Chris Hoy ) but today I was back home in under 50 mins. Now, its early days to suggest that this change of bars is going to improve my average speed to this extent , but for a first outing, I'm well pleased. While riding, I had that really relaxed feeling as though there was no effort in what I was doing. These new bars give a less aggresive riding position with much more back sweep than the previous ones, meaning that i cant pull on the bars as much, but this didnt seem to affect my speed on inclines, I also felt that I was more in control, no drift when looking behind wanting to pull out or turn right, and none of that side to side, front wheel movement when climbing. The bike almost felt that it was steering for me. It felt like the difference between sitting in an armchair against a dinning chair. I'm so pleased that I gave them a go and hope that this new set up is going to stand the test of time. Anybody else out there had any similar experiences when changing kit, I would love to hear about it.
