Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Raptobike fitting and adjustments.

My new RaptoBike: standard except for lights, headrest & mirror. Fun 2 ride!
(note the above picture isn't my bike)
My raptobike is coming together. I spent the evening at the shop adjusting the bike. We cut the boom by about 4.5". We added an extension to the stem to raise the handlebars up a bit to clear my gut. The other issue was my thighs were hitting the end of the grips preventing me from pedaling a full circle. One thing we did was realize that the bar was not vertically symmetrical and we flipped it over. This changed the angle and gave me much more clearance. It also lowered the tiller a bit and improved my view of the road. We also adjusted the chain for the new bottom bracket position.

All of this work was great but it did screw up the cabling runs and since we increased the distances we had to cut the cables. Tomorrow they will re-cable everything and get it all running in the new adjusted positions. On Friday I will head back and we can tune the Q-ring position. The headrest is also installed, so that is great. I am very glad I picked out the aluminum headrest, it will be very easy to mount a taillight to it. And it is very comfortable.

When I say we, I mean Matt@The Kirkland Bike Shop, the man is amazing, I feel privileged to have him work on my bike. Every little adjustment or issue we run into he has a solution for.

2 comments:

Marc said...

Hi Duncan,

It's nice to see a picture of *my bike* posted here ;)

My LBS in Winterswijk, Netherlands helped me to mount a rear light by bending a couple of metal strips, and fixing them to both the lighting case and the seat. I could then easily mount the headrest to the seat by myself. I've posted some detailed pictures of this configuration to my Picasaweb on your behalf.

Some other changes to my bike since py purchase last December: a small mirror on the left handle end (for safety), Shimano SPD pedals (for comfort), and new Schwalbe Durano tires in stead of the Marathon's for some speed gain (approx. 2 MPH on average).

I find it true fun and exciting to ride, getting a lot of smiling faces on my way. So I'm really looking forward to your riding experiences too...

Kees us posted!

Marc

Duncan Watson said...

Indeed. Your bike is in a ridable state right now. :) I forgot to take a camera with me last night.

I will keep you posted.