Recently when I’ve been out on my bike I’ve been noticing an increase in the number of e-bikes out and about. When I was on Arran in September most of the tourers I saw were e-bikes, maybe hired ones being used by visitors who hadn’t brought bikes with them.

Amongst people my age (mid to late 60s) I think e-bikes are becoming especially popular. I just listened to an article on Radio Scotland’s Out of Doors extolling the virtues of e-bikes for people whose fitness is not what it used to be or may even have some sort of disability which excludes them from using a normal bike. An electric assisted bike can really mean the difference between cycling or not for some folk.

For myself, I am going to continue to pedal. It helps me keep my fitness levels up and for cycle touring and camping an e-bike just doesn’t have the range to be practical. So, for the next few years at least, I’ll stick to the old-fashioned way. Not to say I’ll never go electric.

Finished wrapping the bars. I ended up buying new Brooks tape as the tape I re-used from the surly bars split.

After trying three different stems, dozens of different combinations of spacers, many handlebar positions and a few angles of rise I still didn’t have the bar set up to my complete satisfaction. By trying two different lengths of stem I worked out the ideal reach would be 90mm with as close to zero rise as I could get.

That meant buying another. The two I had were both bought second hand and I can re-sell them but I decided for the permament one I would buy new. Then I came across an advert for a suspension stem. I had previously considered getting a suspension seat-post but never thought about a stem. I started looking in to the idea and after some head-scratching decided to splash out. There were a few on e-bay, mostly Chinese copies but I decided to go for quality and bought a German made Vecnum Frequence. The only dealer who supplies them in Scotland is a bike shop in Edinburgh and I was going to buy one through their on-line site. Fortunately, I was watching the item on their e-bay site and was offered it at at a good discount. I snapped it up and it arrived this morning.

The quality is good and I think it looks good on the bike. It’s bulkier than a plain stem although not much more than a MTB one which I was also considering. It took a fair bit of experimenting with spacers but I think I’ve got the set-up right. I won’t cut the steerer until I’ve used it for a while as I may still want to adjust the height of the bars again. It will take a longer ride to ascertain if the suspension makes a great deal of difference to the ride comfort but any reviews I’ve read say it does.

I’ll do a fuller review after I’ve used it for a few months and on longer rides.

I got my new bars yesterday. They are KOGA Satori Denham. With them having a bigger diameter I had to buy a new (second-hand) stem too. The one I got has a 80mm reach and 30 degree rise. I don’t know if this is too much or what the best height of the stem will be. It will be a case of trying different combinations of spacers until I get it right.

I have a few options and plan to try them all before taping the bars or cutting the steerer.

The Met Office is recommending that everyone in the central belt doesn’t leave their houses today, so I’ll spend the morning fitting them.

The internally routed cables on my Scandal come out of the frame, round the bottom bracket and back into the frame. It looked to me that this was going to gather mud, so I’ve come up with a home-made cover, fabricated from an old section of mudguard. Will see how it works.

The surly corner bars have turned out not to be as comfortable as I had hoped when I first fitted them. They are OK but I spend most of my time with my hands on the top of the bar. This is really just the position I’d be in with flat bars but narrower and the brakes are not quite within easy reach. I have to change position to slow down or change gear. This is not too big a deal but what is, is the lack of room on the top bar to move around to alleviate pressure. This is especially noticeable when I have a bar bag fitted. So, now I’m waiting for a delivery of the latest attempt at finding the most comfortable ride. Kona Satori Denham bars. These are a flat bar, slightly swept back with bullhorns which give the option of a hand position similar to the brake hoods on drop bars. I’ll fit them in the next few days and we’ll see how they go.