Before, with a stem that was fine last year but now seemed too short, original 1990-ish Shimano 200GS mostly plastic trigger shifters and four-finger brake levers, and in need of a cleaning and waxing:
After:
Making them the same size wasn't the specific goal here, but as the kids are about the same size, this should work, for maybe two weeks at their current rate of growth.
Obligatory drive-side picture with new pedals, grips, brake levers, shifters, cables, cable housing, front brake cable holder, and the whole thing washed and waxed.
When I got back into cycling and started reading everything I could find about bicycles online, I read people grumbling about how difficult cantilever brakes are to set up. They haven't given me pause before this weekend. On his bike, attaching a fresh brake cable requires one hand to hold the cable tight and another to turn an allen wrench to secure the cable to the cantilever arms. Of course, it still needs adjustment from here, but that's all it takes to connect the cable before starting the fine-tuning process.
But on hers, while reusing the original parts instead of using a newer connector cable setup as I did on his, I needed to use two hands and two wrenches of different sizes to tighten the upper nut and bolt while also tightening the lower nut with a third wrench while holding the cable tight with my fourth hand. Simple, right?
All this bike stuff is still easier than setting up a Stratocaster with a floating bridge.
Close-ups of those old but new-to-me brake parts, before and after. This bike is in such good shape overall that the brakes were about the only mildly surprising part of this tune-up.
Yes, my workbench top is painted OSB.
It started as a temporary thing with a piece of leftover wood, but I've never gotten around to replacing it.
Both Hardrocks have a strange (to me) channel welded to the frame for the rear brake cable to pass though. I'd prefer a regular brazed-on cable stop toward the rear of the top tube, but this works just as well, I suppose.
Mission accomplished. I tried to get that saddle up just a little higher, but she liked it where it was. I think the fit looks pretty good for now.