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Call me Mikey
Having adopted bar middles as my personal savior, it's been a long time since I've ridden drop bars. I have kept a road bike with them, as it's far more benign to bump bars in a group when the tips point backwards, but I'm pretty sure I haven't ridden my road bike in the time since I was hit by a car in 2022.
My new old Raleigh Super Course is definitely a road bike, complete with classic drops. I was contemplating converting it to flats, especially since it has a surprisingly roomy reach, but it didn't seem right to not ride it at least once with drop bars before committing myself to eternal damnation, or at least purgatory, by putting mountain bike bars on a classic road bike. And no, my test ride down the the mailbox and back didn't count.
The bike spent the winter in Ben's basement in Northampton, and I was considering cruising the Norwattuck Rail Trail that way as an inaugural jaunt, so I checked with Ben to see if he'd want to meet for a gentle roll with me and the bike he lemon Pledge polished. That wasn't going to work, but I still had a chance to see him and show off riding the bike by joining a stealth Bike Lab to help a Pedal Person keeping their bike in hauling shape after a winter of hardship.
Riding the bike: that happened! First impression, aside from knowing I'd need to change a few parts to have it fit like a 58cm bike should, wow, it has a smooth ride! I've taken to running 40-50psi in my tires on the road as I have fewing glass flats with less pressure pushing shards into the rubber, but with relatively narrow 27" (I'm calling them 700b, since like 650b versus 650c, they're just slightly bigger than the road standard 700c. The bike industry, being the bike industry, also sometimes calls 700c, which is smaller than the 27" standard, 28".) I inflated to a whopping 60psi. It was still amazingly comfortable.
As for the bits that need changing to fit me, all the parts hanging off this 58cm frame seem small. Most crank calculators pair my leg length with 175mm cranks, but I found I prefer 170mm because most of my length is in my lower leg, which, on a bike, serves just as a connecting rod, not adding much to the up, down stroke. My legs feel fresher at the end of a long day on 170s, but most bikes my size come with 175mm cranks. The Raleigh has 165s!
Moving up the the handlebars, they're small again, 39cm measured to the outside. Oof, I have wide shoulders (Just ask my mom! Her comment: "Birthing the head was no problem, but I'll never forget those shoulders."), and those bars belong on an extra small bike. Same thing with the toe clips, even my little pixie feet find them pretty short. Fortunately, the super short stem suits me, given the exceptionally long reach of the frame.
Now for the truly odd one: I'd noticed there wasn't any pad adjustment left on the front brake if I wanted to switch to 700c wheels, but on closer inspection at Bike Lab, I realized, even at maximum reach, the pads were dangerously close to contacting the tire sidewall. Eep! I pulled the entire brake off to see if there was any way to coax a little more reach out of the pad adjustment, and eventually thought to compare the caliper to the rear, which was comfortably within its range, with margin.
The front and rear calipers were different reach! My knowledge of British manufacturing from this bike's era includes specimens like the three wheeled Reliant Robin, so I wouldn't put it past someone in the 1973 Calton factory shipping the bike with the wrong brake as long as it was close enough. I've heard consistency is key, and so much else on this bike is too small!
But getting past all that, and I will, I do kinda really like the bike. It's fun; bikes are! Yes, sure, it's far from perfect, and the same can be said of me, but that doesn't mean either of us are beyond continual improvement. I'd like to think we're both worth it, regardless of our age. I like it!
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