Tag: specialized

Pedal Thoughts and Tinkering

I will admit it, I am a pedal snob.  I have big feet, like to ride in Keens, and hate little tiny pedals that only support out to my middle toe.  It always feels like my foot is about to roll off of the ends.  When I am looking at a new pedals the distance from the crank arm to the outer edge of the pedal is a big deal for me.  I have tried clipless systems, but found that the gains were not worth the need for an extra pair of shoes in most of the ways and places that I ride.  Most modern platform pedals are not really that wide, and off I went into the depths of vintage pedals.  My bread and butter has been the Sakae Low Fat, wider than the current MKS touring it has been a good pedal for me.  It works easily with clips and straps or naked for shorter rides with lots of stops and starts.  The downsides are weight, bulk and the general in-elegance of the clunky pedals on classically styled road bikes.  Enter my latest acquisition along this quest:

I recently scored a near new set of Specialized touring pedals.  Their MKS lineage is pretty clear.  They are as wide as my Low Fat MTB pedals, 30g lighter each, and look a whole lot prettier than most of today’s pedal offerings.  While nice they had some shortcomings out of the box.  The toe strap arrangement, appears ingenious,  but does not really work in the real world.  The strap makes its upward turn at the outer edge right into the bottom of my foot.  Off to the drawing board, I came back and turned my MKS large/deep toe clips into a new set of half clips.  This is my first set of half clips, so time will tell how they work out.  I made each a little different to see if, well if it makes any difference in function.

For now these will be going on my Roadeo, to get me motivated to put some miles on it while I am waiting for the Masu production samples.  I will let you know how it is going in a week or so.

Suntour Thumb Shifters

So we are out on a family ride yesterday and my wife is telling me how much she loves the cork grips and the Sequoia in general, but why are the shifters still on the down tube?  It is realy fun being able to build bikes up and share the stoke.  I remember having the conversation on this, none the less I was off to the parts bin with a score had been saving for just such a build…

The barcon shifter orientation part of my brain thought these would work well this way.  The reality is that they are much better flipper over with the Suntour logo facing down they way they were meant to face on a flat bar.

1983 Sequoia Final Build – For Now

The drop bars were not the setup of choice for my wife.  I figured that was going to be the case and had a set of Nitto Albatross bars and NOS Specialized dirt drop stem on hand and ready to go.  The grips and levers took a bit of time to get together, but the finished product looks pretty darn good in my opinion. 

The only other thing swapped out so far was the pedals, as with the drops, clips and straps are not here thing at the moment.  The luggage is in the design phases and fenders may show up before the next winter rains.  I entertained the idea of a 650b conversion, not much to gain for her so we are going to hold off. 

 This is a fantastic bike, I wish you could still walk into a shop and buy something like this off of the rack for a reasonable price.

Bikes In the Garage – 1983 Specialized Sequoia 47cm

This is a recent Ebay acquisition that we could not pass up.  It is the perfect size for my wife, and happens to be the closest to mint Sequoia I will likely ever see.  Every piece is the way it was the day it rolled off the showroom floor, and it was stored indoors for 27 years and only ridden a few times.  I had High hopes, but was stunned once I put it together and wiped it down.  Superbe brakes and pedals, Avocet crankset and Saddle, Suntour derailers, Specialized hubs smooth as butter, and the tires still have the mold witness lines with skin walls in great condition. 

She will ride it for a bit as it is, but it will quite likely get a set of Albatross bars, the 650b wheels and brakes off of her Miyata.  The build quality on the frame is incredible, as nice or nicer than my Rivendell.

Now if only I coud find a 62.5 like this one.