Originally Posted by
microcord
I imagine that with this as your primary transportation you'll encounter hills, headwinds and tailwinds. What's the problem with the gears as they are?
The brake levers look extraordinarily uncomfortable to me. Most people with handlebars like this would prefer to position brake levers so that they could be used from the handlebar grips. That means a different shape of brake lever, positioned not in front of and sideways from the grip but instead below the grip.
But are you sure that you wouldn't get used to, and come to appreciate, the drop bars that came with the bike?
The shifting is not easy, and sometimes problematic. The friction shifters sometimes work fine but sometimes don't shift correctly, and a couple times seemed OK only to fall out of gear when I stood up to go up hill, not fun. I'm used to the clicky shifters, where you click and your in the gear you want. Might thought was to try the single/fixed egar and if it wasn't working upgrade to a more modern system...? Or I guess I could either pay for this system to be professionally tuned, or learn how to do it myself. Part of my issue is that I know nothing about the way these systems work and it looks really like a can of worms haha! The idea of a simple single gear with no shifters is appealing.
I have really big hands and long fingers and the position of the brake levers is not bad for me, I can reach them fine with a couple fingers. The bigger issue is they are not what should be used on upright bars I know, I have ordered some more appropriate ones. I was just using the ones that came off the drop bars for now. I want an upright riding position, for relaxed around town riding. If I get more serious maybe I'll want drop bars.