Most of the road rash is healing nicely, but a huge football-sized bruise manifested itself on my left thigh on Thursday. I'd call it a Mystery Bruise, but its origin is no mystery. Again, I'll spare you the photos of that mess. I'm still a bit sore, especially on my deeper scrapes, but they will go away soon... I hope.
A good friend of mine donated a helmet to the cause. It's a typical recreation helmet, but every bit as comfy as the Bell Solar I had before. Anything with a CPSC sticker is fine in my book! It has a detachable visor. I'm usually not a fan of those, but it holds my Take-A-Look mirror better than the helmet tab I was using before, so it may stick around.
I actually got back on the bike on Friday with a round-trip commute. I got about 20 miles in over the weekend, and had a nice ride to work this morning as well.
As far as the bike goes, everything looks to be in good shape. I found a few deer hairs in the steerer crown and fender when I removed the fork to examine it closely. The carbon fork appears to be un-damaged. I'm not sure I trust it, though. When carbon fails, it fails spectacularly!
So, I'm on the prowl for a caliper-compatible steel or aluminum road touring fork with front-rack eyelets. It would pretty much complete my bike as a do-all tourer/commuter. It looks like Surly's Long Haul Trucker fork would work. I wonder if those Cantilever bosses are removable...
Monday, June 28, 2010
A few rides later, feeling alright.
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6 comments:
I don't know about the canti bosses. I think they're fixed on there. Of course, "removable" is relative ...
I wonder how the LHT fork would affect the geometry/handling of your bike. Also, you might need a long-pull brake to use calipers with the LHT fork, there's quite a bit of clearance between the fork and the tire. An advantage would be the ability to run wider, tires, if you want.
Another option would be to get a fork that doesn't have canti bosses and use p-clamps or something similar to attach a rack. Not as slick, admittedly, but it would open up your fork options quite a bit.
Keep in mind that I am horrible at working on bikes, so I'm really just guessing here ...
Sorry, by "Caliper" I mean "My current crown-mounted Shimano 105 road caliper"
I have no interest in switching to cantilever, V-brake or disc brakes on my bike. I'd like it if I could just drop a new fork on it and call it good. The Surly fork does seem to have some rake to it, but I'd need to do the measurements to see if it actually puts the axle in a noticeably different spot.
It's here where you need a friendly LBS with a deep parts bin (or the parts in question in stock and willing to break 'em out for testing).
Good news! Both the LHT and the Trek 1200 have a 45mm rake. I just need to see if the Axle-to-crown measurement is the same. Of course, then I need to save up a bunch of money for buying said fork.
It looks like everything is getting back to normal. I'm glad for you.
You might try the Pacer fork instead of the LHT fork. It's more likely to be close to the brake reach you currently have. Alternately, check out the Rivendell carbonomas fork. $115 if you send 'em your current fork.
The Soma fork also looks pretty nice:
http://store.somafab.com/so1crlufo43.html
Tange also sells road forks as does Dimension (probably made in the same factory as the Surly forks).
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