Ghetto Roadie

I was asked what I meant about two things when I changed out the bars and stem on my road bike. What do I mean when I say that I have Californiaed out my hoods? And what did I mean by the ghetto bar tape comment.  Ah. Well here you go.

Californiaed out hoods.  The deal used to be that you would run the bottom of the bars as close to level with the ground as possible to set the bar in the right place for all the different places you would want to hold onto a set of drop bars.  Then you would make an effort to get the top of the hoods (that black rubbery part of the shift levers) as close to level as possible as well.  At least that is what I was told way back when.  When?  When this bike was new, that is when.
So lately people have been running the hoods more tilted back, because it is more comfortable.  Since I was changing out the bars and stem, it seemed like the perfect time to try it.  I will let you know if it works for me at such a time when I get to actually ride the bike.

As for the ghetto bar tape, you can see that the once white tape was pretty grubby and since I saved the tape from the previous wrap, you can see how funky (ghetto) it looks.  Pretty obvious that it is not new.  No?