Bike Upgrades (part two)

Back again with more news on the velo construction. This time, I’m even more pleased with the results, but I still get tired riding twenty miles. You can’t have everything I guess.

Today I was talking to one of my friends about biking and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a package from the wild Amazon storefront (Niagara Cycle Works, specifically. +1 Recommend). In it were two more additions to my daily rider, a safety addition and another (hopefully) performance booster.

A shot of the completed handlebars

Safety first!

A closeup of the right handlebar drop (sorry about the blur)

Another shot of the complete handlebars (mirror on the left, drops and top extensions)

It looks a bit different than it did 3 months ago

Thing 4: Drop handlebar addons
Origin 8 Bicycle Drop Bar Ends

These are the standard roadbike-style handlebar drops, but these are made for turning mountain bikes into mean street machines. Which, by golly, they seem to do a very nice job. They’re supposed to be placed on the ends of the bars, but I personally didn’t have that in mind when I ordered them.

Road bike drops are about shoulder width apart, which is almost exactly where I put these. They barely fit underneath the brake levers, and any other place would have been a disaster. Basically, they’re perfect.

And they work really well too. It’s strange; on a car, to get more horsepower you can increase the size of the exhaust, or bore out the engine or add a bigger this or that. The only thing these two types of handlebar extentions do is reposition your body, but man does it make a difference. Especially if you get your weight off the seat.

Yeah, these basically rule. Did I mention they were $20? No? Well, I think that’s a pretty good value for a 100% power increase.

Thing 5: Mirror!
Mirrycle MTB Bar End Mirror

Now I’m all about turning around and seeing what’s going on behind me. And I know going fast means reducing drag. Those two points aside, I absolutely love this mirror. Probably any mirror would work, but there’s a reason it’s the number one seller on Amazon.

It’s slightly convex, meaning things look smaller, but you can see more of the road behind you. That is the most important thing, really, since you can judge the distance by listening and paying attention.

This keeps you headed forward, as opposed to turning around to get a feel for where the traffic is. Sure, it sticks out pretty far and will add some percentage of drag to your uber-super ride, but honestly, you’re not going to win the Tour de anything, so a little mirror is a perfectly good thing.

I guess the next upgrades would probably have to be lights, and those will definitely take a while to get here. I’m going sans battery, so we’re talking a couple hundred dollars. I really really hate batteries though, so I’d much prefer to be self-sufficient.

In other news:

• If your Band is on the Run, you might want to catch it. Perhaps you could catch it in the new game Guitar Hero: World Tour. You may have heard of it.
• Hmm. MINI, you’re messing with me, right? This not too great looking concept is, well, not too great looking. Nice features. Nice size. But remember mini? As in, small?
• In the battle of the plastic band advertising campaign, Rock Band is rockin‘. Probably because they invented the sport.

but they never will be found