Liza's new bike

Last August, Liza rode a fast little bike and dug it. Years ago, she had a Bridgestone XO-1 that was really a great bike for her. We shouldn't have sold it. Especially considering that it had S&S couplers.

Say what you want about the quality of Bridgestones. And I've said plenty (and here). But the XO-1 was a cool bike: road bike for 26" wheels. I don't know why we don't see more of this. I guess it just flies in the face of what we expect from road bikes and bikes with 26" wheels.

Anyway, it's a great frame for Liza. It's nice light-enough standard tubing. It's got a fast but sort of neutral front end and it's a good fit. I traded some wheels and other stuff for this frame. The guy I got the frame from lives close to Seattle Powder Coat so he brokered that deal for me too. It was handy and easy. The color is brighter green than shows up in these mostly-awful pictures.

She likes indexing everything, so I had to get it to Glen to make all that work. It was tough to find a front derailleur that indexed well with such low tread. It turned out to be LX 9-speed shifting all around. Other interesting bits:

-- A dyno hub and an IQ Cyo LED light up front.
-- Liza's favorite saddle: the Avocet Touring W
-- Honjo 26" fenders which are silly expensive, but super nice.

-- Nitto Jitensha city bars nice and high.
-- Fancy Velocity Aeroheat rims with butted spokes
-- Pasala (tour guard!) 1.25" tires
-- Rad Tektro 57mm reach side pull brakes that open up like crazy.

There are a couple outstanding workitems. For one, I want to make a nice rear rack. Basically a Tubus Fly, but lower and optimized for a B&M fender-mount light and Ortlieb front roller panniers.

I'm also going to put another stay on the front fender and see if I can get Glen to build me another mount for the light there.