New-to-me Hunqapillar

[James M]

Hi, all.  Long time lurker, only recent poster.  I posted a photo in the thread about Ron's Ortho Bars, but thought I should share more generally.  After following Rivendell and buying parts here and there for 20 years or so, here's my Hunqapillar 62cm, bought from the wonderful folks at Mack's Bike and Goods, and now winding its way through the iterative, evolutionary process of getting it to what I want it to be.

It's replacing the Surly Long Haul Trucker that I've had since 2005, but which wasn't cutting it anymore - couldn't get as relaxed a position as I wanted and couldn't fit as big a tire as I wanted.  I had been using that bike not for its loaded touring intention, but for mixed pavement/gravel/light trail rides, like the last few years of the Nutmeg Noreaster.  I restored a Motobecane Grand Record last year that I can use for my road bike, so the move to the Hunqapillar lets me have a do-everything bike that's a little less roadish. 

The Hunqapillar came around at exactly the right time.  I've built it up with mostly parts from the bin.  A couple of things that I'm working through (and open to any suggestions on!):

(1) The front derailleur.  I'm using a triple as a double with a bash guard replacing the outer ring, like I've done on other bikes.  I'm using an old Deore XT crank, but on a 113mm bottom bracket spindle that's way too short for it.  I have a 118 handy that I could easily swap in, but the chainline for the "middle" ring seems too perfect to want to move it out.  It accommodates the 24/36t rings I want to use just fine.  EXCEPT - a vintage derailleur has to be a mile high on the seat tube to not be hitting the chainstay, and a modern mountain derailleur solves that issue, but won't come in close enough to the seat tube to shift to the small ring.  SIGH.  I spent a bunch of time filing down a direct mount adapter, but still can't get close enough.  I may keep going that route, or might do the inverse of the derailleur mod laid out here for quad chainring use and shorten a derailleur cage - http://abundantadventures.com/mtfaq/frontderail/fr.derail.mods.html

(2) Handlebars.  I jumped on the Ron's Ortho bar sale and was lucky enough to get one.  The problem is that it sweeps back a little too far for me, even with a 120mm stem.  I thought about looking for a 130, but I think I need a bar with a better forward position.  The Ortho bar has a little too much rise for the forward position to work for me, or for me to mount it upside down.  It also can be a bit of a wheelie machine for me when going up a steep hill or steep bit of trail.  But now what? A friend has an Albatross I may borrow to test in the flipped position, or I may look at the Choco or Choco-Moose (which looks like it could be really cool, but hard to spend all that $$$ without knowing!).  The Billie bar could be promising, but seems to be sold out everywhere.  I used an Albastache on my Surly for a while and like the variation in positions, but my wrists don't like the default brake set up.  I did run it with inverse levers for a bit, but I now really want to stick with a trigger shifter.

tl;dr - here are some photos I took of the-bike-that-I'm-very-happy-with-but-still-tweaking here in the lovely South Mountain Reservation on a warm lunchtime ride last week

James

South Orange, NJ

[Chris L]

Congrats on the new bike!  Hunqapillars are a rare model.

I love the Jones bar on my Hunqapillar.  

I've never been able to get comfortable on drops, but I've found a similar position on the Jones bar, where the red circle is drawn.  I rest my heel on the juncture so that my thumbs hook just inside the loop.  It puts me in a nice (relatively speaking, for me) aerodynamic position in which I can just cruise.  

Placing my hands an inch or so behind the controls is very similar to a typical mountain bike handlebar.

At the very back of the grips is used periodically when I want to sit up and look around, or more often, to recover a little.  

I have the 2.5" rise version with 710mm width.  

[Jay Lonner]

+1 on the Jones bars/Hunqapillar combo! Bosco variants had me sitting too upright, and the non-bullmoose version was too flexy under load.

Jay Lonner

Bellingham, WA

Sent from my Atari 400

On Feb 15, 2022, at 3:53 PM, Chris L <clam...@gmail.com> wrote:

Congrats on the new bike!  Hunqapillars are a rare model.

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[Eric Marth]

Thanks for sharing, James! Sick Hunq ya got there B) 

[DD]

Hey James, nice looking Hunq!

Re: your front derailleur, is it just an aesthetic issue w/ running the FD high on the seat tube? Or is running it high negatively affecting your shifting?

-Danny

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[James M]

Thanks, all.  Yes, the Hunqapillar is super cool.  The Atlantis was always the touchstone Riv for me, but I really love this wooly mammoth!

DD - yes to aesthetics on the front derailleur, but also worried about performance with it so far from the chainrings.  I guess I should give it a try and see how it actually works though!

James

[J J]

Great pics! The gray and not-kidney-bean-red Hunqs look so good, and yours is a great example. 

fwiw I love the Bosco Bullmoose Bar on mine. It works for the way I like to ride most of the time. Jay, I also experienced a lot of flex with the non-Bullmoose version. It felt disconcerting for a big fella like myself. But the Bullmoose version is reassuring and just right.  Here's a couple of pics, taken a few years apart.

[John Phillips]

What length stems are you all using with your Jones bars & Hunqapillars?

John

[maxcr]

70mm

[Jay Lonner]

At 6’3” with most of my height in my torso I use a 85mm FacePlater. 

Jay Lonner

Bellingham, WA

Sent from my Atari 400

On Feb 25, 2022, at 9:00 AM, 'John Phillips' via RBW Owners Bunch <rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



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[James M]

Decided to switch things up on my Hunq - the Ron's bar is cool, but didn't have the additional forward hand position I needed.  Decided to switch over to the Choco-moose (thanks, Kai!) and it's definitely a better fit for me.  A little more width on the back would be nice, probably noticing it more coming from the Ron's, but the 2.5 hand positions I'm getting from this are really good so far!

[James M]

[James M]

Third time's the charm?

[Jennings]

Hunq is by far my favorite.  My keep forever bike.  

[James M]

It really is special.  I just got fabric in the mail to start sewing up a frame bag for that upper triangle!

[James M]

I took the Hunq out to Stokes State Forest for an afternoon of bikefishing and scouting for an overnight next month.  It was super nice - I'm really liking the hand positions of the Choco Moose bars and their resistance to spinning on rough trails.  I have some Fizik gel strips under the cloth tape.  Good times.

[Kainalu V. -Brooklyn NY]

Those Chocomooses look right and proper. 👍 

-Kai

[Johnny Burrell]

Hunq's are hard to find. It took me years to find mine and through the kindness of someone on this group (thanks again Matt!) I did find one. Picture attached. I have the Nitto Albatross bars, as many folks have recommended. I find them to be comfortable, however I'd prefer bars that are more out-swept and stiffer. On this bike-packing trip the handling is downright weird with 20+ lbs on the front of the bike. Do you feel like the Chocomoose bars are noodly?

[Susan Rosenblatt]

What did you catch?  Catch and release or take home to eat?

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[Roberta]

I had a 51 cm 2016 Appaloosa with both chocomoose and albatross bars. Loved it with the former, not so much with the later. Love the Albatross on my 54.5 Homer. Never ran a load on the front, though. 

[James M]

The Choco Moose have been good to me so far, but I've been riding only lightly loaded.  For the overnight we're doing next month, my load will be pretty similar to what's in your photo.  Front lowrider rack with panniers + basket + light load on top of the rear rack.  I'll report back with how it handles.

On Friday, April 15, 2022 at 3:11:16 PM UTC-4 johnny....@gmail.com wrote:

[James M]

Just catch & released a couple of stocked rainbows.  I had another 15 miles to bike after hitting the Big Flatbrook, so definitely wasn't equipped to bring any home!  Such a great river though - my favorite in NJ.