TomvanHalen's MTB allsorts - drop bars are dead

Are the clown grips mandatory?

I feel like you're not taking touring seriously enough.

60 mm clearance :-/
200 mm steerer :-/
No guard or rack mounts :-/

Let me know if it's of any use anyway.

Ah, you can't win them all.

Would make a good upgrade for a Pompetamine though. If only I still had one

The parcelman cometh, and he bring dat twin-plate fork goodness and big flaps. Also thumbie mounts. And mudguards.

Those thorn forks are so nice. 26" ones?

Yup, older Raven fork. 403 a-c, 54 offset.

Really nicely constructed, hope it suits the bike. My last option before custom.

Good flaps

Excited to see, big fan of twin plates.

take a look at trials bike forks, gusset do a few, and you can still find the steel onza straight ones on ebay every now and then. gusset ones are heavy tho : (

have you checked out the new simworks fun bars? rise, backsweep, steel, they got it all!

edit: just saw you have new forks

I had thought about trials forks, but after riding the Salsa fork on my Kona I don't want to go back to anything crazy stiff! Such comf. Also I'd still have to get it modified with rack mounts and shit.

Those Sim Works bars look nuts. Good nuts.

yeah tru. they are heavy as fuckkkkkk, i got the gusset ones for my peugeot tourer as they were the only ones i could find, and i do love the segmented look. got rob quirk to do the braze ons.

identiti do a much lighter cro-mo one at 405ac i think but curved etc

im going to get a pair of the simworks ones for sure. i shouldnt be bothered by the bar snapping incident i had a while back as it will never happen again, but i am now really keen to get all my bars steel rather than alu. stupid but true.

Yeah, it's really difficult to shake off that kind of experience. I was hit by a car when I was like, 13 maybe? Had such trouble crossing the road for a good year or so after.

Definitely I'm coming round to the idea of steel bars. Especially if they're a bit more compliant than alu ones. Those Moloko bars are only 200g or so heavier than DB alu Jones bars too.

For now I've got a Titec J bar on the way to see if I get on with the general concept. If I really fancy the extra tubes I might upgrade later on.

My Titec/Jones alphabetti spaghetti bars have arrived. It's all very exciting, even if they're a bit too old hat to get me instagram likes. Pics to come. Gonna start work tomorrow.

Do I spray my mudguards black, or keep them stainless?

Amateurish photoshop to help the decision. Should have asked @Tijs

Leaning towards black

2 Attachments

Does painting stainless work well? Thought it doesn't.

I had presumed if I sand it back with 400 grit and clean it up properly it would be fine. Might ring round the local powdercoaters and see if it can be done on the cheap also.

Teflon spray paint then you can fry eggs and stuff on them.

genius

A wild Jones bar appears

A crown race is fitted, for the princely sum of £2.60

Wheelies for days

Farewell drop bars. Cable spaghetti

And we're starting to look pretty functional

That's it for just now. House buying interrupts play

This is going to be so rad.

Haven't really caught up, but why the move from drops?

Basically, this frame is preposterously long, because XL mountain bike. I've had to accept that to get a comfy reach for touring, I'd have to use something like a 60mm stem with drops, and really my ulnar nerves don't like it that much anyway. I'm pretty comfy on my mountain bikes, and it should handle better as designed I guess.

Also apparently I get bored if any of my bikes stay the same for more than a year :/

Front brake hooked up, bodged into gear

Test ride success. Made it to celebratory house-buying dinner without incident. Handles much better than with the shorter fork. Feels smooth as also. Will definitely need to trial the offset seatpost again though, I forgot how stupidly rearward the rail positions on Brookses are

Could this be the first time a Thorn steerer tube is cut down?!