This morning, I went out to the Great Maine Bike Swap at USM. The doors opened at 10am, and I was due into work at 10:30. Needless to say, I was a bit hurried and I didn't walk away with my arms quite as full as I'd done on previous years. That said, I did make a few key purchases. Perhaps more noteworthy than what I was able to get are the things I convinced myself not to. I was all ready to buy this weird orange Italian bike from the 60s, but I backed out literally at the last possible moment. Instead, I went to the tables and bought a couple discount parts that I have immediate uses for. If this is a sign of my bicycle enthusiasm maturing, then we can all breath a small sigh of relief.

Being outside on a beautiful morning, surrounded by bicycles and bicycle enthusiasts made me feel happy and slightly more awake than I have been all winter, even though I was running on two and a half hours of shaky acid-reflux sleep. It reminded me of this blog I'd started, and how I once had this ambition to do something with it. Well, here goes nothing. Is it a faux pas to draw attention to an inaugural post? I don't really follow these things. Among other things, the idea I had for this blog was to document various bicycle projects I involve myself in. I build at least a few bikes every year, and it's a process I love. I've got a lot of things waiting on the wings this year, so I don't anticipate a shortage of material.

PROJECT #1: Univega Gran Turismo (A.K.A. "The Touring Bike")

Last summer, I rode my fixed gear bike about 40 miles up the coast of Maine between Portland and Bath. It was the furthest I've ever ridden on a bike, and I did it in one constant gear ratio with no coasting. It's something I remain very proud of. While I am glad for the experience of having done it on a fixed gear, it made me aware in a very real sense just what the limitations of myself on a fixie are. Since I hope to go even further, I knew I wanted to get a bike that was made for these applications. As luck would have it, I stumbled upon this bike around the same time I was having those thoughts. It was in the living room of this guy while I was at his house buying some other bike. He had previously expressed interest in my Specialized Sirrus, so I offered it as a direct trade. I have little doubt that he emerged at the objective victor in that trade, but I came away from it with something much more suited to my priorities, not to mention, a touring bike that is nearly a match to my fixed gear commuter.

Despite being a very nice bike, it is nonetheless an old bike. The more one evaluates it's features, the more plainly apparent this fact becomes. Being a product of the mid-80s, it just barely (and quite frustratingly) predates a number of important shifts in industry standards:

• 27" rims (as opposed to 700c, which became industry standard somewhere around the turn of the decade)
• 6-speed Thread-on freewheel, 126mm spacing (as opposed to a freehub with a cassette, which became standard in the 90s. 6-speed was also an awkward transitional step, with many better shifting options available in the 7-speed era. 126mm spacing means that any modern hub would require the frame to coldset in order to fit. Not impossible or expensive, but a pain just the same.)
• Suntour friction shifters and derailers (predating Shimano's stranglehold on the industry. Not bad parts, but not as good as the Shimano stuff that would have been available just a few years later.)
• Non-aero brake levers (as opposed to, of course, aero brake levers.)
• Spacing between chainrings too wide for most modern chains, as it predates the shift to 7+ speed drivetrains.

It is not my intention to completely rebuild this bike. On the contrary, I've set myself the rather modest goal of making it work as well as I can with the bare minimum of necessary upgrades. It's an exercise in restraint that frankly I'm long overdue for. After spending nearly 500 dollars last year on a bike that I was given for free, I should prove to myself, and everyone else, that I can make things work on the cheap too. Having said that, I will not skimp on the things that need to be done.

Tonight I overhauled the "cockpit", as it's sometimes referred. That is, the handlebars and all things attached and directly associated. I'm notoriously good at forgetting to take before pictures, so you'll have to believe me that the difference is radical. After realizing that all my favorite bikes have sort of medium length stems, and that this one had sort of an excessively long stem, I dug through my spare parts and found one about an inch shorter, marked "Fuji" and originally found in a box full of bike parts beside the trash dump. I removed the original dia-compe levers (cool though they were) with a set of Shimano 700 aero levers that I acquired today at the Bike Swap. These are complimented with a set of Cane Creek Crosstop interrupter levers. I only got to test it on a quick, stupidly chilly ride as the sun was going down, but it's quite comfortable.