Monday, March 3, 2008

Nearly There



I figure I'll be able to take my maiden ride around the block on Weds night. I can hook up the brakes tomorrow night. Then Weds I'll get my chain, some fancy new pedals, and we'll be ready to roll.


I got the chainline/tread figured out. I'm running the Sugino PX crank with 44/30 double. I hooked this to a 116mm Shimano UN73 with 4 mm of spacers on the drive side. Perfect chainline and a tread/Q of about 130.


The threadless headset is new to me. I need to work some magic to secure the decaleur w/out overloading the bearings, but I have a plan there. I like the face plate on the threadless stem. Seems like a PITA to adjust height though. Of course you only need to do that once or twice, then it's set. Jury's still out on the threadless deal.


Good seatposts in 27.0 are damn expensive. I found this old Laparde up in the P2P stash. Not a super nice post, but for $4, it's a much easier pill to swallow than the $85 I'd have to spend on the fancy Nitto that I'd rather have. But damn, man: it's a seat post! That's $85 I just don't think I'll ever spend. Well. Maybe if I had like one or two bikes then I might get them all decked out with the super fancy components. But I'd rather have a heap of good-enough bikes with good-enough parts.

Speaking of good enough. I'm running the Pasala 32mm tires on this bike. They're cushy, fast enough, and super cheap. Suntour barcons. These are wearing out. I'll probably spring for some silvers when these finally give up the ghost. CR-18/Shimano Dyno on the front wheel; LX hub laced to Velocity Synergy OC on the rear wheel. Good hearty stuff.

6 comments:

Michael said...

"I got the chainline/tread figured out. I'm running the Sugino PX crank with 44/30 double. I hooked this to a 116mm Shimano UN73 with 4 mm of spacers on the drive side. Perfect chainline and a tread/Q of about 130."

I have no idea what any of this means . Could you do a post explaining this?

John Speare said...

Hi Michael,

I could try to explain this, but it's been done much better elsewhere. Go to Sheldon's site (http://www.sheldonbrown.com/) and search "chainline," then "tread cranks." Shimano UN73 is a type of bottom bracket.

Michael said...

Thanks!

bleckb said...

Unless you're getting a great deal on the pedals, I mean really great, don't guy them (something tells me they are coming with an REI employee discount). Rachel has a pair and she wasn't double-sided, mountain bike pedals instead. Buy her pedals if you like so she can buy what she wants.

Apertome said...

Nice bike, I like your style.

I found your blog while looking for Spokane cycling blogs. I currently live in Indiana, but my fiancee and I are thinking about moving to Spokane, and I'm trying to get a sense for what cycling opportunities it has to offer. So far, it looks pretty good. Any information to offer? Thanks.

- Michael
My blog: http://apertome.com/blog/

John Speare said...

Apertome/Michael: move here, you'll love the riding. More cyclists make for a better city. Contact me if you want more specifics (johnspeare@gmail.com), but if you spend some time reading the archives of this blog, you'll see my view of riding in spokane: I love it; 4 seasons, lots of mountains/hills; super close to rural dirt roads; Columbia River and a zillion lakes within a day's ride for great S24O's; huge roads in the city with pretty moderate car traffic; great beer. What's not to like?