the harder they come, the harder they fall

I swapped out the Jones Bars (titanium) for a Surly Torsion bar (steel, made by Nitto) on the singlespeed. I've been threatening this for some time.
I will now say: whoa.
So much more snap. Way less comfort. But, let's face facts: the SS is built for speed, not the all day ride. So this bar suits it well. And, plus I got to entomb my lucky monkey in this bicycle. That's gotta be good for some Black Cat bone type hoodoo.



Eye opening.


I've been riding alternative needs bars in a form or another since '95, when I was introduced to WTB's 16degrees of sweep Ti bar (which are regrettably narrow, but now adorn my kids' rides for that reason). Straight bars are for saps- it puts way too much strain on your wrist to cock it in and accommodate. Sweep is where it's at. However, I've drifted so far into sweep that it's changed my leverage on the steering in a big way. I just acclimated and forgot that snap possible with a more perpendicular lever (i.e. bar)...until today. On account of I'm a primadonna, I'd like to find the Torsion bar in titanium.



I will be selling that Jones bar and retiring off the proceeds. T___, you were right about the handling in Colorado with the flat bars. Damn it. So, there was that; super fast on the technical stuff, great for climbing. Goodness.










The kids have conference week this week so we took advantage of the 1/2 day schedule to get some time in on the Ord. J took the 20" out for his 2nd real ride on it. He was railing the singletrack, to the point where I bit my tongue and watched him reel it out. Then he overshot a turn and ran into a shrub. That put a little damper on things. Banged his face, cut his eyelid. His response, after the crying, was "Good thing my helmet hit that first."





It also ripped his front brake cable out of the lever and crimped the ferrule onto the housing in a bit of smashed distortion which rendered it unusable. We spent some time attempting to fix this, and did get to use a rock (to pound the ferrule into a useable shape) and the corkscrew on my knife (to pry the smashed ferrule off) for repair work, though. And that's nice.
We hung out at Comanche's Grave, but ghost story telling was dumped in favor of stalking coyotes on the wetland. That paid off with some good viewing.

This is all well post crash...


He's comfortable enough to try and kick any rattly plant he can reach. Just to keep it inneresting.