I ended up staying up later than originally planned on Wednesday to finish the
Mundo. As usual, I had to change some things to better suit my preferences. Instead of the swept-back bars I put on some
Race Face riser bars I had lying around along with a set of orange
Oury grips. Along with the usual box build, I also had to install the Yepp seat (which was insanely easy), the Bread Basket (which required headlight relocation), and the stoker bar (which didn't happen).
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| My little helper |
After adding my personal touches and getting it 90% tuned, I took it for a very short spin on our street. So far, so good. It felt mostly like a normal bike and I was able to get the cockpit pretty close to my mountain bike setup but with much more rise for cruisin' comfort. The problem with the stoker bars is that they are made for the previous version Mundo, which has a 31.8mm seatpost. The V5 Mundo has a more standard 30.9mm post. On Thursday I snagged a Coke can from the recycle bin and proceded to make my own shim so I could take the girls for a ride.
Yuba has a shim available, but forgot to send it. Kindly, they did overnight it to me but I'm going to wait for my zero setback
Thomson seatpost to arrive before swapping it in. The stock seatpost has too much setback for my liking.
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| Ready to ride! |
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| Rollin' with smiles |
The girls love it. We rode over to say hello to the horses and around the neighborhood. They didn't want to go home. We did pretty much the same ride the next night. On Saturday I took advantage of nap time to make a foot rest (aka
Leg-Up). I used an old aluminum Cannondale CODA handlebar, orange grips, unused spacers that came with the Bread Basket, and two M6 by 50mm bolts and washers from a hardware store. It turned out perfect, looks better than Yuba's, and was much more rewarding than just buying one. Also, those bar end plugs light up for night riding! After nap we rode over to our friends' house for the kiddos to play.
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| Foot rest for little feet. |
Sunday was filled with riding to the park in the morning...
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| Park smiles |
And to the pool in the afternoon...
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| They like Jane's Addiction. Rad. |
I have plans to keep improving the bike. The next change will be an upgrade to a clutch derailleur and 10 speed drivetrain. Using an Amazon gift card (thanks, Julie & Brian), I got a killer deal on a
Shimano XT Shadow Plus rear derailleur. I wasn't planning on going higher than Deore, but couldn't resist. I think the clutch derailleur will really help with the chain tension and reduce slap on the frame. I'm also planning on ditching the low end square taper triple crankset for a 38/26 double, likely Deore. The bike came with a 170mm crankset and I prefer 175. Justification, right? Also, all the parts I'm removing will be used for
Gears 4 Good bikes.
Huge thank you to my parents for largely funding the purchase of this most awesome bike. It was a great birthday surprise!
