It tied the room together...

I've mentioned that my left rhomboid has become my new hobby.  I blame my issue on the fact that 9-5 has two checks in the negative column.

When I'm out delivering, I'm wearing a bag on one shoulder.

When I'm not delivering, I'm sitting in front of a computer killing time and trying to remember to not sit all hunched over... which I'm not that good at doing.

I also realized that the bar/stem combo I was running had me too stretched out with my hands close together... bringing my chest in, which is also a no bueno for the rhomboid.

So that's why the 50mm stem came off the Stickel and the riser bars came off my pump and a quill adapter from my old Colnago got stuck in my tarck bike to tie it all together until I could come up with a better solution... one that was in front of my face the whole time.

I'd seen that Zac had been fabricating stems recently, but threadless 1 1/8" jobbers.  He's really  expanded his talents to all sorts of things over the past year or two, and Fattimagic has been pumping out all sorts of stuff.

But I didn't know how hard it would be to source the materials for a 1" quill stem (with expander/bolt/cap).  Where would he be able to get all that stuff?

Oh... mebbe right here?

I don't know why I didn't think of it before. The stem that Chris M had given to me so that I could try a basket (which I ended up hating), but the stem remained because it looked way dope on the old tarck bike.

I asked Zac if he could hack the stem, grind it down, replicate the same negative rise (better for carrying boxes on handlebars), and make it bueno.  He did just that less then five days after I handed it to him.

I had to run out and buy some gloss black spray paint to bring it to it's full glory, but here's the end result (in trbl lighting):

The crabon bars that are on there were dirt cheap but are probably still too narrow.  I need to begin my hunt for wider 25.4 bars, I guess.  So far, it would seem that 25.4 died around the same time that bars got wider than 580mm, so this is going to be easier said than done.*

But at least all the other things are back where they belong, and a certain sense of balance has been brought back into my world.

 Super pumper pump ready to pump.

Stickel Meatplow V.6 ready to head back to the mountains... but mebbe not*?

All thanks to my crafty little friend, Zac.

If you've got an idea to create something that's beyond your skill set, consider giving Fattimagic a shot at it.  Peruse his portfolio and see just what he can do for you.

* I may have lined up a sweet custom Moots ti bar that has a history... and as it so happens, is the same length as both of the bars on my mountain bikes (but not as wide as my super pump).

 * Possible experiment pending.