Porteur bars for the Falcon
23/01/11 13:27 Filed in: Cycling
After a 34 mile ride (a long ride for me), my shoulders and neck were pretty sore. I had been questioning the drop bar’s suitability to my riding style (mostly city) for a while, and this experience persuaded me to replace them with something more comfortable. My requirement was that any replacement bar have at least two hand positions. I had exchanged Ursula’s drop bars with Porteur bars from Velo Orange, and she found them much more comfortable. After a lot of research, I decided to get them for my bike as well.
As usual, I was trying to reuse as many parts as possible. The first hurdle was getting the Porteur bars (25.4 mm at clamp) to fit securely in the proprietary Cinelli-sized stem (26.4 mm at clamp). I used the stem which was originally installed on the bike because it offered a little more extension than the present stem, and I didn’t want my position to be too upright. I also recalled this stem being tight when removing the Cinelli bars, thus possibly requiring a little less to shim.
Several stacked aluminum can shims were slipping out of the clamp and obviously not working. I went to the hardware store with my micrometer in an attempt to find something appropriate, but the only materials of the correct thickness would have to be cut from something larger and expensive. I was about to admit defeat when I recalled some unused heating/cooling duct, which turned out to be just a little thick by a hair. I cut a strip measured to not quite meet when bent around the bar’s clamp area. The shim is visible behind the stem bolt from beneath, but is practically invisible from above. The bars are a little scratched from all the trial and error, but it’s not very apparent from a normal viewing angle and distance.
I had purchased some neat Dia Compe Guidonnet levers sometimes seen on old French touring bikes (also from Velo Orange) for this project. I installed these and reused my Suntour bar end shifters. This required some cabling decisions. I was going for a clean look and decided that it would appear too cluttered if all the cables were red, so used black for the shift cables.
With the Guidonnet levers there are two positions from which the brakes are at hand: the flat traditional grip area just in front of the bar end shifters, and the curves/corners for a slightly more aggressive position. With this stem of approximately 2 cm longer extension than the one I used with the drop bars, the corners of the Porteur bars are about where the downward curve of the drop bars begins, roughly the hoods position.
As usual, I was trying to reuse as many parts as possible. The first hurdle was getting the Porteur bars (25.4 mm at clamp) to fit securely in the proprietary Cinelli-sized stem (26.4 mm at clamp). I used the stem which was originally installed on the bike because it offered a little more extension than the present stem, and I didn’t want my position to be too upright. I also recalled this stem being tight when removing the Cinelli bars, thus possibly requiring a little less to shim.
Several stacked aluminum can shims were slipping out of the clamp and obviously not working. I went to the hardware store with my micrometer in an attempt to find something appropriate, but the only materials of the correct thickness would have to be cut from something larger and expensive. I was about to admit defeat when I recalled some unused heating/cooling duct, which turned out to be just a little thick by a hair. I cut a strip measured to not quite meet when bent around the bar’s clamp area. The shim is visible behind the stem bolt from beneath, but is practically invisible from above. The bars are a little scratched from all the trial and error, but it’s not very apparent from a normal viewing angle and distance.
I had purchased some neat Dia Compe Guidonnet levers sometimes seen on old French touring bikes (also from Velo Orange) for this project. I installed these and reused my Suntour bar end shifters. This required some cabling decisions. I was going for a clean look and decided that it would appear too cluttered if all the cables were red, so used black for the shift cables.
With the Guidonnet levers there are two positions from which the brakes are at hand: the flat traditional grip area just in front of the bar end shifters, and the curves/corners for a slightly more aggressive position. With this stem of approximately 2 cm longer extension than the one I used with the drop bars, the corners of the Porteur bars are about where the downward curve of the drop bars begins, roughly the hoods position.