tairy

My partner has a sweet aqua Trek 1000 with white decals. If this was larger, I would be tempted to steal it. Since I'm so nice and just got into fixing bikes, I thought hers needed some TLC. So this was a $100 used find a few years ago. She's rarely biked on it but I'm trying to get her out with me a little more for casual bike rides around town. So I just replaced the brake pads with some Kool Stops, replaced the brake housing with Jagwire and new cables. Someone converted this from drops to a riser bar at some point and am questioning if they knew what they were doing with the brake levers. I have a hunch that they are long pull brakes used with side pull cantilever brakes. I'm not 100% certain since I'm pretty new to this but could someone confirm?



Next thing, while replacing the brakes I noticed this bike has a little screw near the cantilevers where the housing runs through. The little housing caps don't fit in here, so I'm guessing these are just designed to be used without caps. Is this assessment correct? Also is there a good way to scrape off this old sticker that is barely handing on for its life?



Onto the next part which I would swap if it were my bike, the tires. So to me these tires are far too narrow for city biking with pot holes galore. On top of this, I feel like these may be worn beyond their lifespan. The forks could clearly take tires that are a little thicker but she doesn't believe me when I say she thinks she needs them. What do y'all think of this?




Is there a reason I should change out the shifter housing? I have some extra Jagwire housing and shift cable so would do it if would improve shifting. I can't tell but to me this bike looks like someone left it in their garage for years.




Next, I'm not a fan of grip shifters. Yikes. on top of this, these grips are old and nasty. That's just a personal preference though. I think that's all I have for now. I have some black Shimano Sora brake levers that I was going to return because I realized I didn't want them to clash with my chrome handlebars (the one in the background in the photo below). Unfortunately, I don't think Shimano makes chrome Sora's. So if you think just changing to these brakes would improve the braking, I would swap them out in a heartbeat.

Here's a look at the bike.

noobinsf 

What is the symptom with the brake levers? In other words, why do you think they are not matched? It may be that those are linear pull for v-brakes (which would make them the wrong levers), but I'm just curious what problem you're trying to fix.

The brake housing end you're talking about is called a ferrule, and I think you'd be ok leaving that off, since brake housing is coiled under the plastic coating. I think I've left that off in the past with no consequences, but I will defer to the more informed folks who will chime in shortly.

As for the grip shifter and wider tires -- I know there's really no faster way to get someone to stop riding a bike than to insist that your preferences are improvements. Are you two similar enough in size that you could modify one of your bikes temporarily to show her what she's missing with thumb shifters and wide tires?

It's a nice bike, and it's definitely worth putting some time into if your partner agrees to it.

tairy

It feels like the brake levers pull too far (almost to the grips). I was able to figure this out just now. I took it out for a spin and now it's stopping with some confidence. These side pull cantilever brakes can be sort of a nuisance to get set up right.

Oh and you're from Oakland noobinsf ? I moved away from Oakland right after the beginning of the pandemic. I miss it, especially Lake Merritt. Congrats to the Warriors again!