One Hundred Seventy-Three
Just sent this email to Andy Wergedal in response to some questions about my Albatross bars. (Check out this web page too.)
Hi Andy,
Sorry for the delay. I rode to Hood River and did my first cyclocross race yesterday on the fixie with the Albatross bars. That was FUN! I was pretty spent by the time I got home. And today I've been working on some designs for a t-shirt and getting ready for my trip to Interbike. (Yeah!)
What's your longest ride on a fixed gear? Do you still ride geared bikes too? What about non-fixed single speed? How far are you thinking about riding? I'm working on my first article for Ultra Cycling magazine about how riding a fixed gear some of the time can improve performance on a conventional bike. If you have any thoughts on the matter, I'd love to hear them.
About the Albatross bars...
> Do you find that you sit more upright with them, is that a problem or a benefit?
You can certainly sit more upright when your hands are on the ends of the bars. I put cork grips on mine and I like them a lot. For me, sitting upright is nice when you are going down hill. If it's a steep, long hill, the upright position feels more comfortable to me and helps you catch some wind so you don't have to brake so much. Also, I don't like to have a lot of my weight on my hands when I'm descending on a fixie. Sitting upright is great when I'm commuting, because it's easier for people to see me (I think) and I can take in the scenery better that way. For really long rides, however, drops are probably the way to go. I think you could do 500 miles on the Albratross bars OK, but you might not go as fast as you would go in drops. I'm planning to use drops on both my single speed bikes for RAAM next year.
> Why did you change to those bars? I read about your wrist hurting after RAO was there another reason?
I've had two pair of Nitto Albatross bars in the garage for a while (both sizes from Rivendell). I wanted to experiment with them, because I had heard how much some people like them. I'm still thinking about putting them on a custom single-speed tandem that I want Tom Kellogg to build for me. I did take the riser bars off the bike because my fingers were going numb (my wrists were OK, actually). The Albatross bars seem to be working better for me than the riser bars did.
> Why Orange tape?
I think the orange goes nice with the Country Road Bob. It came with orange tape on drop bars originally. Also (in case this wasn't obvious) I often ride with my hands on the tape instead of on the cork grips. It's always nice to have multiple hand positions on long rides, and the Albatross bars give you several. You can even put bar ends on the bars - sort of like aero bars - and then you have even more positions and more room to stretch out.
Tailwinds!
John
Andy Wergedal wrote:
John,I have read about you in the 508 and other things. I have been riding fixed gear bikes for a few years and am interested in longer races.I am interested in your new albatross bars on your bike and I have a few questions...
Thanks in advance,
Andy Wergedal
Rocklin Ca.
Hi Andy,
Sorry for the delay. I rode to Hood River and did my first cyclocross race yesterday on the fixie with the Albatross bars. That was FUN! I was pretty spent by the time I got home. And today I've been working on some designs for a t-shirt and getting ready for my trip to Interbike. (Yeah!)
What's your longest ride on a fixed gear? Do you still ride geared bikes too? What about non-fixed single speed? How far are you thinking about riding? I'm working on my first article for Ultra Cycling magazine about how riding a fixed gear some of the time can improve performance on a conventional bike. If you have any thoughts on the matter, I'd love to hear them.
About the Albatross bars...
> Do you find that you sit more upright with them, is that a problem or a benefit?
You can certainly sit more upright when your hands are on the ends of the bars. I put cork grips on mine and I like them a lot. For me, sitting upright is nice when you are going down hill. If it's a steep, long hill, the upright position feels more comfortable to me and helps you catch some wind so you don't have to brake so much. Also, I don't like to have a lot of my weight on my hands when I'm descending on a fixie. Sitting upright is great when I'm commuting, because it's easier for people to see me (I think) and I can take in the scenery better that way. For really long rides, however, drops are probably the way to go. I think you could do 500 miles on the Albratross bars OK, but you might not go as fast as you would go in drops. I'm planning to use drops on both my single speed bikes for RAAM next year.
> Why did you change to those bars? I read about your wrist hurting after RAO was there another reason?
I've had two pair of Nitto Albatross bars in the garage for a while (both sizes from Rivendell). I wanted to experiment with them, because I had heard how much some people like them. I'm still thinking about putting them on a custom single-speed tandem that I want Tom Kellogg to build for me. I did take the riser bars off the bike because my fingers were going numb (my wrists were OK, actually). The Albatross bars seem to be working better for me than the riser bars did.
> Why Orange tape?
I think the orange goes nice with the Country Road Bob. It came with orange tape on drop bars originally. Also (in case this wasn't obvious) I often ride with my hands on the tape instead of on the cork grips. It's always nice to have multiple hand positions on long rides, and the Albatross bars give you several. You can even put bar ends on the bars - sort of like aero bars - and then you have even more positions and more room to stretch out.
Tailwinds!
John
Andy Wergedal wrote:
John,I have read about you in the 508 and other things. I have been riding fixed gear bikes for a few years and am interested in longer races.I am interested in your new albatross bars on your bike and I have a few questions...
Thanks in advance,
Andy Wergedal
Rocklin Ca.
posted by Sabertooth Salmon at 8:17 PM
1 Comments:
I was going to ask you the same thing for very much the same reasons. Thanks for posting the question and response. I have also previously checked out Perry Bessas' site on a-bars.
ride on,
tim
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