>>1534393cool bike
leather is the most expensive type of bar wrap. not hard to find. nothing wrong with cork, foam, etc either.
I believe the rubber hoods from velo orange will fit your levers but read their page to be sure.
you can get 700c tires and tubes everywhere.
saddle fit is tricky. if you put corrugated cardboard on a flat surface, sit on it and rock around to mash your sitbones into it, then draw circles around the divots and put a dot in the centers, you have your sitbone measurement between the dots. for a road bike body position, you want to add about 40mm to the sitbone measurement to find your total saddle width, but for aggressive riding position you want to go thinner.
a charge spoon (I think there's a new name for them?) is a good, inexpensive road saddle if it fits your measurements. there are billions of saddles and what you love is something another person hates. just gotta try different stuff. some shops have loaner saddles. a coop will have a bin of (probably crappy) saddles but you could at least experiment with different widths that way.
noobs get a big gel saddle but your sitbones sink too far down and all your soft tissue sinks in and it's actually less comfy for rides over like a mile.
pedals depends on if you want foot retention or not: so-called "clipless" pedals or there are clips and straps that bolt onto most pedals.
owever I wouldn't recommend that until you're an experienced rider.
for now, get a pair of cheap pinned flat pedals off amazon.
upgrade or don't.
don't fuck with repainting.
you can steel wool any serious rust spots off and cover with nail polish/model hobby/auto touch-up paint.
that old Bridgestone decal is cooler than new paint.
your frame is for an average height or a bit less person.
also the seat all the way down is only if you can't reach the pdals therwise..
look up saddle height on
sheldonbrown.com or etc.
t's ind of a big deal
