Part 1

You know those things you’ve been putting off, and then need doing urgently just when it’s least convenient?

This is one such thing:

They’re rubber and old and have been getting progressively stickier for quite a long time. I’ve been to bike shops and held various handlebars. I’ve looked at handlebar grips online. I’ve read articles about different shapes and sizes and materials. I’ve talked to the people I know about what they have and to people I don’t know about their experiences with horns.

I spent a lot of time thinking but zero time replacing.

And now the rubber is actually broken and I’m going on a 4 week cycling tour in less than a week…

It’s Saturday. I’ve been at work or otherwise busy during normal opening hours all week and had a list of things to talk to the bike shop about. I was comparatively prepared, considering how unprepared I actually am. And then they had the audacity to be closed. Seems I’m not the only one to go on holiday.

*sigh*

Time to look for a new bike shop.

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Part 2

The search was slightly nervewracking but ultimately successful, which is the way things usually are..

The guy was great and even though I rolled in 10 minutes before closing time, he obligingly answered all my questions (I can still ride with scratched tyres, my chain was making weird noises because I threaded it the wrong way through the derailleur, saddles are weird but he doesn’t know where to get narrow woman’s saddles or short stubby-nosed man’s saddles) and sold me all the things (a spare inner tube – the last one in my size – and new(ish) handlebar grips with horns 😈) ..and he’s ordered a thing for mounting a bottle holder without drilling holes in the frame 🙂

The grips are ‘newish’ because they’d been taken off a different bike and put in a drawer of spares. They’re mostly fine, the horns are scuffed on the ends and they’re a bit grubby, but the rubber’s still good, almost new, and they were ridiculously cheap, cheaper than the cheap rubber hornless ones he had on the display and much cheaper than the leather or wooden ones I’d been considering.

The bike shop guy only pulled them out when he saw how miffed I was that he didn’t have any with horns for sale. I figured I need something asap and it can’t hurt to try these out. So here we are…

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Part 3

They’re now mounted and ready to go 🙂

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Part 4 – test ride(s)

Wheee!!

They took some adjusting – the horns and the grips are semi-independant, so setting them up involved multiple stops in a handful of kilometres to change all the angles – but they are so worth it.

I don’t remember reading an article about how much difference having the right handlebars make to speed, not that I’ve looked specifically, but I’m convinced they’ve added a couple of km/h.

Still got to get the hang of the horns though 🙂