Tag: Pink ‘Rona

Summer ends tomorrow, and I only managed to get out on two bikepacking trips. There are a lot of reasons for that, most of them pretty weak. Fires on the Olympic Peninsula nixed my plans to re-ride the Olympic Bridges route. Lack of pre-planning tanked the Olympic Adventure Route. I couldn’t find a campsite when I needed one, and apparently you can’t just show up and manifest one. Most importantly, I just didn’t ride as much as I wanted. I don’t “train,” so I didn’t rack up enough saddle time and didn’t feel remotely prepared to tackle the harder stuff on my bikepacking bucket list.

A Change on the Horizon

That might be about to change.

I’m starting a new job in a few days. It requires me to be in an office three days a week, which feels pretty retro. I haven’t had a real commute since February 2020. Most of my travel since then has involved long-haul flights from Seattle to far-flung places.

I have options. I could spend 45 minutes each way on a bus. I could drive for over 30. Or I could do what I used to do for most of the last decade: ride my damn bike.

The Pink ‘Rona Rises

Enter The Pink ‘Rona, an All-City Space Horse GRX I bought during the pandemic. It never really fit me right. No matter what tweaks I made, the drop bars always left my hands more numb than I’d like. I haven’t ridden it much in the last two years. Hobbes has been my go-to, thanks to its upright seating and Jones H Bars that don’t try to kill my wrists.

Last week, while pretending to prepare for the new job, I started looking at commuter bikes. Then I remembered All-City makes a flat-bar version of the Space Horse. That got me wondering: could I convert The Pink ‘Rona and avoid buying another bike? A little googling later and, yes, Shimano makes it pretty painless to swap brifters for flat-bar brakes and shifters.

So now The Pink ‘Rona is mid-transformation. The drop bars are gone, replaced with Hobbes’ original Jones H Bar. The slightly knobby Rene Herse tires were swapped out for narrower, slicker Terravails. The narrower tires allowed me to reinstall a set of metal fenders for wet riding through the winter. I threw a front platform rack back on as well.

(Side note: I will never buy Rene Herse tires again. They were such a PITA to set up tubeless! It took me hours to set them up successfully while the Terravails took about 10 minutes each!)

The new brake levers are waiting to be installed and bled pending the purchase of a few parts, and the shifters should show up later this week. I hope to be riding by next weekend.

Once everything’s set up I’ll do a testing with a variety of stems in my bike parts bin to get the bar height and stem length dialed. I expect that I’ll buy a Jones H Bar with a 2.5-inch rise since I’ll need a stack of spacers to keep the bar at a sufficient height. I’m currently rocking 60mm in spacers and a 30 degree rise stem to keep the drop bars high enough for me! I’d be happy to ditch the spacers and cut the steerer down to a more reasonable length with a riser bar instead.

The Big Question

Will I be “training” for bikepacking in 2026?

Unlikely, at best. But if I’m commuting by bike three times a week, I might actually have the legs to tackle the routes on my bucket list…