She's Not Wasted! An Addict Emerges from Rehab (5235 gr.)

[Johnny Rad]

Everybody deserves a second chance, especially Addicts.

You going for even more saddle to bar drop (!!!) this time around? Looks like your steerer needs a good trim now.

[KB]

Love what you've done here. For me it's what WW's all about. Chapeau.

[Tinea Pedis]

Lovely stuff mate!

[jvanv8]

Thanks guys. And good catch Juan, although I just added the photos, you can tell by the photos that I started work on this back in Jan/Feb.

You going for even more saddle to bar drop (!!!) this time around? Looks like your steerer needs a good trim now.

... I was thinking about it

Finished the cable routing for brakes and derailleurs. Thought I might run a Powercord for the FD so I after getting it perfect with a steel cable I tried to remove it, but apparently it's jammed in the shifter... strange. Guess I have to find some tiny screwdrivers to get in there and straighten things out.

I also can't see why Gravitas aren't compatible with Powercordz. Seems like the pinch bolt would hold great. Thinking it was due to the larger diameter of the cordz and the narrow tolerance, I tried threading it through and pinching it with the bolt. No problems. But I had already installed the Aican housing... which definitely isn't compatible so it's a moot point anyway. Aican housing + steel cable on the front was only ~16 grams anyway.

[Liggero]

very nice, but the carbon ring and those brakes... the bike seems to be more suited for a show room than for being used...

[jvanv8]

Playing with Pedals...
We won't mention the name of the pedal manufacturer since they seem to have a nasty bunch of lawyers and have lurked around on WW.
But... back in '09 I had the BTP plates for these "playful" pedals. They were ok at first, not as good as the original steel, but once 'broken in' they were fantastic. After 2 years of riding them and over 100 century rides, I they started looking sad... so I tried the version from Jersey Cycles... those didn't last 1/2 of the way through the first century ride I attempted. Clearly the JC version was for Wall-Mount and Gallery bikes. To this day I don't know the material BTP was using, but it was great. I think the pedal company shut him down eventually which is sad.

Now, my good friends over at (I probably shouldn't name them...) well they are making a Ti version. It's heavier than the JC versions, but lighter than stock. I briefly tried clipping in and it didn't seem to be working out.

At this point, it seemed like a good excuse to buy some digital calipers several users of this forum have and seem like a good investment for calculated answers.
So here we go: We'll call it stock vs light-ties without naming names .
Profile
Stock:

Light tie:


Thickness:
Stock Tie:


Light Tie:


Installed Thickness:
Stock Tie:


Light Tie:


I think the most noticeable difference is the angle of the edge. Combined with the thickness, it seems likely they would not work.

[jvanv8]

very nice, but the carbon ring and those brakes... the bike seems to be more suited for a show room than for being used...

This is my second set of Fibre-Lyte rings. I originally purchased them for a dual Alpes/Pyrenees adventure, but they just kept going and going. I ended up putting in over 6000km (or more) on the rings and it took a really, really nasty ride to do them in. I'm fine with the rings and actually I really enjoyed the added quietness of the drivetrain compared to the stock VumaQuad rings. They won't last a lifetime, but the VumaQuad rings are also expensive and wear out in a year as well.

As far as the brakes... from what I've heard of thus far, they are more powerful than my KCNC CB1's... which I'm fine descending just about any notorious mountain with. Win-win in theory, but you're right... I've yet to prove this rumor.

And don't worry, I don't built show room bikes, or bikes where parts get swapped out for 'real rides'. It's set-and-forget (because I'm lazy like that).

[jmilliron]

Very cool! Looking forward to seeing this finished.

[ohsnapitsed]

this is looking GREAT! Also Calfee does some awesome rehabs. Good choice.

[jvanv8]

Updates:

Strangely enough, the cheap temporary front derailleur cable (while the housing compresses and the derailleur gets adjusted) got jammed in the Red shifter.
I removed the side panel but the head of the cable still would not release from the plastic red piece:


A bit gutsy, but I eventually decided to try and drill the tiny derailleur head. It actually worked out well and it provided good grip with pliers (which still was surprisingly hard to yank out).


Cleaned up the shifter guts (pristine now) and even smoothed out the plastic bits with the rotary tool in hopes it wouldn't happen again. Turns out, it could have been because the derailleur cable head on the cable was too big. My new toy is coming in handy to prove I'm not going crazy:
The cable at large, is enlarged:


Some other random shifter cable I had lying around (possibly KCNC DLC)


Regardless... all is well with the Powercord installed. Always a bit frightening when you break out the big power drill on bike gear when it's a game of millimeters.

Next up was the pedal ties which did not fit. Even with Herculean pressure nothing was going to clip into them. I could return them but the transatlantic shipping and return hassles got me thinking...
So with 3 pairs of Ti bowties, I figured I could try to machine (err... dremel) one bowtie to see if I could get it to work.


And it did! You'll notice the little groove in the bowtie (see previous post) is no longer visible as I increased the angle of the bevel. I also trimmed about 0.08mm off the thickness of the tie by sanding down the underside.
This is only my second project with a rotary tool (a cheap $25 Black & Decker) but it worked out well. Ironically the best fitting I had for manipulating titanium was the 80 grit wood sandpaper. I went through 2 in order to machine down 4 bowties:

The bowties got very hot during the sanding process (over 130 degrees C since water immediately boiled and evaporated when I poured it over the ties) so if you try it yourself in the DIY fashion with a rotary tool, have some water and even fire extinguisher nearby just in case... safety glasses and a filter mask are also a good idea.

Wheels, Tires, and Tubes:
Still not sure what will go best with this bike. The MadFibers were slated for it, but I've been riding them on the RC and really like the look and ride for it's purposes on that bike.
The other immediate option is the DV46T UL tubular wheelset.

So with MadFibers, these would be the tentative tubes of choice (Vredestein latex @ 49 grams)


For tubulars, there's this option for the rear -
Veloflex Carbon:

Veloflex Carbon dated Apr 2012


And this for the front.... the last one standing from the 6 others that didn't hold air. Skeptical to say the least, but it is aged (about as much as an Extreme can be)! And I've currently got it stretching on the rim to see exactly how much air it leaks overnight.

Veloflex Extreme from Apr 2011:


Tread comparison:


Apart from tire gluing or clincher beading, all that's left is the bar tape and a little headset tweaking!

[jvanv8]

Dry-mounted the tubulars to pre-stretch them. Inflated to 130psi.
...I should have seen this coming... the Extreme 6 hours later:

[Ghastly]

try pouring some notubes latex into the tube. Had a flat on my front tube and poured about 20ml into the valve and it's keeping pressure for 2 day now...

[jvanv8]

It's a brand new tire, not even glued yet. I've been through this 5 times before with Extreme tires and unfortunately sealant doesn't help. It's defective from the factory (stitched through the tube??)

[jvanv8]

I tried to finally follow up with Veloflex about their 6 Extreme's that all failed within 48 hours but no reply yet. A little disappointing.
So it's unclear whether I'm delusional, or a thrill-seeker, or both but I bought 1 more Extreme tubular... mostly out of curiosity.
I originally purchased the Extreme very close to when they were released so I thought I would now get a later generation tubular. But the Extreme that arrived was dated Dec 2010, even older than the 6 unridable tubulars I had previously. I dry mounted it on the wheel, inflated to 100psi and after a few days it still had 40psi... acceptable!
I know there are a lot of Veloflex fans on this forum and I wish I've been able to ride them for an entire ride to gauge their performance. I'm still skeptical unless Veloflex has an answer (1 good tire out of 7), but these are just too unreliable to purchase for high-end rubber. I'll probably move to Vittoria or FMB for the next set. Sadly, this Veloflex episode is souring me on the reliability and notion of tubulars for an everyday tire as a whole. I'm unsure whether this is a fair judgement or simply a very bad batch of tires.

[jvanv8]

Teaser weigh-in. Still need a haircut for the steerer (& ditch the pointless spacers). Also the shifting was not so great with the iLinks rear loop so I swapped it for some heavy housing. But this is an indication of the the final weight which will certainly be lower:
Shown with tubular wheel setup. Clincher setup is about 100g more:

More to come.