It's not I dislike riding My Salsa Marrakesh. it's a great bike that is fun to ride, I want to put thousands of miles on it. It's well made and I love the simplicity of riding it. i still have plans/dreams/desire Towards Bike Touring and Marra seems like the perfect partner for it.
But Marra is not the perfect bike for me, I am slowly learning. I did compromise when I purchased this bike in mid-2021, right as the supply chain stuff started fucking off and many people had bought a bike for the first to stave off COVID-19-indoor-insanity. I did, it's fine.
I had reached the limits of what was possible riding My Electric Bike within Seattle and I started having dreams of open country roads and long slow climbs, so I went to some local bike shops and ended up test-riding two bikes at Alki Bike and Board; Marra and another lost to time.
Neither fit me perfectly, but it was the best they'd have for 3 months and I didn't feel like delaying longer. The bike I did not buy had a fancy STI drivetrain but fit better; Marra has bar-end shifters and a wider gear range and felt so simple and free to ride around West Seattle once I figured them out.
I find the uhh brake-inline shifters most drop-bar setups have to be a pain to operate in general even if they're more efficient and I'm paranoid about riding such kit long distance and through the rain. So despite a being a 52cm and a bit tight, I went with it and have put quite some lovely miles on it over the last 18 months.
But lately I have been wondering if I should swap to a different bike
Here is a short overview of the negatives I have experienced with the slightly-undersized frame, drop bars, and bar-end shifters:
I quickly had to swap the stem after repeatedly jamming my knees in to the bar ends while getting on and off the bike. At best it hurt, at worse it knocked my bike in to a weird gear and the chain would hop or the rear derailleur would complain on first torque.
It really is a tight fit in the cockpit, but at the same time I can barely get my leg over the back of it when I am wearing even spandex-infused jeans. I recently installed a milk crate on the back with my 3D printed bike basket boot, and could not bring my leg over the back of it any more. The first time I tried to dismount by bringing my foot between the seat and headset, I leaned the bike too far and the basket shifted, my weight shifted and I nearly crash landed on My Tea Plants. Instead there is a person-shaped hole in the hydrangea next to it.
I don't get down in to my drops, like at all. I use them doing hills sometimes, but with the tight cockpit it's not super comfortable to be in a low position for long periods of time. The last time I got in to drops and mashed a bit, I ended up having a minor biff attacking this corner too hard (in the dry!) I've been quite conservative on the bike since then.
I have a scar on my shin from the sprue which connects my front fender to the fork; it's about an inch longer than it needs and I tore a nice big gash down my shin. I stepped off the mtb platforms in a hurry while riding on mixed terrain and twisted the bars hard while my leg was in the way. Stained a sock real good riding home with that.
When I ride with panniers my heels will bang on them sometimes unless I am careful to mount them far back and have good pedal hygiene, which is not so bad but somewhat obnoxious.
I'm pretty sure I sprained my thumb two weeks ago when going over a pothole while trying to shift down coming up to a stop signal. It still hurts. yikes.
Oh what to do?
Once I find suitable maxima, this could be the last bike I ever want to purchase. I have thought about buying a single-speed for city riding, but I don't see myself getting a light road bike or a fixie or a mountain bike, I just want to slow ride trails and roads, maybe do brevets but certainly no true competitions. But Marra doesn't feel like the bike I want to put thousands of miles on yet.
Trade Up?
On first blush, especially with my plans to re-sell Peddleton Byke this year, I have been considering trying to get my hands on a 54cm or 56cm Surly Disk Trucker or Marrakesh -- mine is a Deore drivetrain but they offer Alivio drivetrain now with a front-rack included.
I could be quite happy with either of those bikes or any other number of touring setups, I imagine, but I certainly have to sell Marra and wait for an order, I don't have room for another bike in my apartment. I haven't made many changes to Marra that would make it difficult to sell, but selling things is always difficult, and the timespan between the two bikes could be "difficult" on me. 😉
Swap the frame
I could also opt to buy a 54cm/55cm frameset and install all of my components on to it; it would be easy to sell a frame on eBay or so rather than try to deal with local marketplace for an entire bike. I feel like this is not such a bad option, assuming they are compatible. That frameset is something I would need to paint, sort of an interesting/fun project, but I would have to wait until it warms up to do paint work, I think. It would be fun to put a bit more of my own personality in to my bike, though.
Just make more room in the cockpit?
I have been considering that before selling Marra I should try to install roomier bars on it.
Without spending a pile of cash on a new groupset, frameset, and/or bike tools, my options are kind of limited to things which can be used with my Tekpro brake levers and shimano shifters. As mentioned earlier, I've already had the stem extended by a few centimeters and much more would make it a bit of a tiller when I ride on the hoods, I'm afraid, and make it harder to ride upright in general.
It could be a trekking/butterfly bar with Thumbies, or replace the shifters with something simple and similar to this (taken from that Velo ORANGE blog post):
I see quite a lot of different configurations online with the trekking bars in either M or W orientations, with the drivetrain components mounted in various spots but I do think that something like the linked image is where I would want to start with something like this, and replace the stem with something which has me riding a bit more upright.
For a less-complicated configuration something like a Nitto Albatross or Moustache, or Velo's Left Bank or Porteur handlebars could work out nicely. I am not sure how I would like riding with swept bars like this, but the questions around how to configure/mount/etc go away quite quickly. However, especially with the 52cm I would have to extend the headset or stem and the whole geometry of the Marrakesh might suffer for it, I am not sure. I would have to do something to protect my knees.
//cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1403/7343/prod ucts/hb2-2_96bb8ff2-35e6-4e86-a09e-4335358069fa.jpg
The Albatross gives a fair bit of options in grip placement which I do appreciate, allows for drops, and would look damn stylish with a fabric grip wrap. I'm going to re-wrap my drops this winter with some BTP woven bar tape, if that's nice I'll probably continue working with that in the future as my Amazon high-viz wrap is already starting to wear through.
Should I consider another option?
So...
I could either extend the stem and install one of a few options of an alt bar, with or without replacing the frame:
Trekking Bar with a pair of Thumbies to mount the shifters as thumb shifters
Swept alt-bar like Left Bank, Albatross, etc
I could pay someone to swap out to thumb shifters that works with a straight bar or something like a Surly Moloko/Velo Crazy Bar, but mehhhhhh, idk? I do really like actually being able to move my hands between horizontal and vertical angles on longer rides, I have enough wrist problems as it is.
I could keep the drops and just size the frame up.
I could buy a new bike and sell Marra.
Am I missing some other option, though?
Next month I'll be doing a little bit of leisure riding down in Oceanside with one of my friends, and I am hoping to see how a 54-56cm rides, and perhaps talk to a shop owner about my bar thoughts and this current situation.
Apropos Nothing
While I was working all this out, I went and did some Shopping on some old sites I haven't seen in a while, I found some good resources and local Fun Things to do.
Willamette Randonneurs group and event Cycling near Eugene, OR and their ridegps page
xbiking subreddit since the main cycling subreddits are often to MAMIL for me
MASH SF still sells some incredible stuff like that hat and this incredible rare bibendum. I've been thinking about getting a new cycling cap. Now that I am a filthy car-owner I feel like I can't genuinely wear my "one less car" cap, lol.