I want a new stem for my Gunnar cyclocross bike.   The Gunnar currently has a Salsa steel stem that is exactly what I want, but a little too short.

After an exhaustive search I’ve found very few road stems with the 26mm clamp.  Does Thomson make one?  No.  What about Moots?  No.  FSA?  Nope.  Salsa does make a couple stems with 26mm clamps, but the steel version doesn’t come in the length I want, and the one that is the proper length is welded aluminum and looks like it belongs on a downhill bike.  The rest of the current offerings seem to all be forged aluminum clones with slightly different but equally garish logos applied.

I thought I found the perfect stem.  eBay came though with a new old stock ITM/Colnago Ergo Lite.  Unfortunately, the sellers description of a 1 1/8″ steerer with shim to 1″ was incorrect and I now have a nice looking but useless stem.  For anyone considering an Egro Lite stem, note that while there is a shim, it is in fact for angle adjustment and only works for a 1″ steerer.

It seems that the perfectly adequate 26mm road bar has fallen out of favor for the ridiculous looking 31.8mm bar.  Moots, Thomson, Salsa and just about everyone else make varying assortments of 31.8 stems ranging from nice (Thomson) to hideously ugly (Easton).  While trashing my 26mm bar for an otherwise identical 31.8mm bar is a potential solution, replacing the bars, tape and computer mount just to accommodate a silly fad is unnecessary, expensive, and annoying.

Currently it is a toss-up between a 26mm to 31.8mm shim or a new frame.  I’ll let you know what happens.

A few months ago I broke my Sigma 1600 computer when it (and the rest of the bike) unexpectedly met a stream bank.  The computer still worked, but one of the mounting ears was missing.  Initially I just used a pair of zip-ties to hold the computer to the mount, but the zip-ties moved around a bit, I wasn’t confident that the zip-ties would hold on rough trails, and it wasn’t easy to remove the computer from the mount.

As many of you know, inner tubes are very useful for a number of purposes other than holding air in your tires.  My new mount uses a standard 26 x 2″ mountain tube (I’m guessing it is a 2″ tube, I found it on the trail), and that is it.  I just cut a length of tube, cut a window for the computer display, and then another hole to fit around the mount base.  Normally I’d give a procedure or some simple instructions, but since all you have to do is cut two holes in an inner tube I’ll just post some photos:

Broken Mounting Tab

The cut tube prior to installation on the mount

Inner tube mount installed

Computer Mounted (with the buttons still easily accessible)

I finally got in a decent ride on the Gunnar.  This morning (Sunday) I rode from Glenelg to West Beach and then up the River Torrens to the Zoo, which is a little north of the Adelaide central business district.  The 43km ride was mostly on paved trails with some road, dirt and gravel and took about one hour forty-five minutes.  The weather was cool, around 10°c with light rain.  In my opinion, this is great riding because it cuts down of traffic and washes the mud off of my helmet and shoes, which I also use off road and on recently muddy trails.

Speaking of which, I took the Eriksen out to Eagle Park again on Saturday afternoon.  This time I took a lot of video both on the bike and off.  I have several videos I’m working on now, but this one should be done soon.  The ride at Eagle was better than previous rides, mostly because of greater familiarity with the trails, I found some good climbs, and I didn’t break my chain.

If this is all too boring for you, here is an article from the Museum of Mountain Bike Art & Technology (MOMBAT) on The History of Manitou.