I know a few of us like to hit the trails or the road on our human-powered two-wheelers - so let's hear what you're up to.
This week I finished building a Salsa Fargo. For those unfamiliar with the model it's essentially a non-suspension mountain bike with a drop bar and road brake/shift levers. Perfect for bikepacking and touring - has 5 (count 'em) bottle mount boss clusters including two on the fork legs.
As delivered from Salsa, many of the components are of marginal quality. Okay, but they'll not last under extended hard usage. So...I bought a frame, fork and a wide-tire fork (more on this in another thread) and begun hunting components. $490 set of Shimano ST-4500 shifter/brake levers...$160 shipped; thankya eBay vurrymuch. $200 rear derailleur...$79 shipped.
Etc.
For roughly the same as a bike shop charges for a "stock" Fargo I ended up with one which would cost several times as much and is as bulletproof as I can possibly make it. Except I spec'd the wrong front derailleur and can only get the bike to shift into two out of three chainrings. Ahhh, what the heck: Order another closeout model (actually, a fairly decent one at that) and use the existing piece on another project bike.
All in all a fun contraption to ride. We took our Rockhoppers south through some of the gravel and dirt sections of the towpath this evening; this after swapping wheels for a set which are shod with 2+" mountain knobbies. Seems yesterday's heavy rains had muddied up a good many places and a smoother pavement tire just squirms under power in that slop.
We're tired as a result. 20mi on the Captain Controls is like 50mi on the Serfas Drifters or the Conti Tours which the bikes usually wear.
Thus, I'm headed off to bed...