Brownie

It's amazing how spoiled one can get with a faster bike. After riding my road bike for so long, my townie suddenly feels slow. 28c tires, Mr. Tuffy's, having only one gear, and not exactly the lightest component spec. But you know, I love every pound of that portly girl. I've been stopped at least a few times by people wondering what kind of bike it is, what's the little fender thing on the front, and who made it. (the 'fendette' is proving to be way more popular than I expected) Even though I'm not beating my record on the way to work, it's just fun to ride something that does it's job, rides well, and people love to look at it. And it's even more fun to think of how I made it.

As far as the actual ride itself, I'm stoked to finally have a disk on the front. The fork does have more flex than say a mountain bike fork. But overall, not bad at all. And luckily(?) I've been able to test it out in some emergency slam on the brakes at full speed situations already. I haven't been caught in a full on downpour (yet), but in a slight rain, the brakes and fendette are pretty awesome. The spray that pops up in front of the fork from only having clip on (rear coverage only) fenders is curbed quite nicely by the lugged-looking fendette. Beauty and function!

This being the first version of this particular bike, there are a few tweaks I would make for next time. But then again, I always want to tweak something better for next time.

(The 'Fendette' works! and people love it!)





Mechanical side note: The crown race was in fact widened out by the old fork not being exactly to spec. Once I got the new one, it pounded on quite precisely.