03 March 2013

It's a start

I think that's all the parts.
(There are wheels, they're hanging on the wall behind where I was standing to take this.)

Last thing to arrive?  Chain ring bolts.  (User error, that was.)

Second to last thing to arrive?  Seat-post elastomer blocks for the Thudbuster, which were apparently under some sort of curse.

Never done STI shifters before, never done maintenance on the thudbuster seatposts, but the rest of it should be at least the second time around, so there's that.

And then I get to find out if the Dill Pickle front bag (ordered optimistically with respect to size) actually fits, or if I'm going to need a slightly smaller one.

There's some gibbering in there somewhere.

4 comments:

Janice in GA said...

Is this a new bike, or a re-do of an older one? Looks like fun times ahead! Srsly.

Graydon said...

New bike.

Very similar to the Experiment except a)no couplers b)bottom bracket shell height 1cm higher c)head tube shorter d)lugged fork instead of a unicrown fork and e)chain stay length enough longer that the distance between the crank centre and the rear axle centre is 1cm greater. (I'd have to look to e sure, but I think 50cm to 51cm.)

The hope is to keep the Experiment set up as the touring bike (50/34x12-36, front pannier racks, different choice of tyres) and the Hypothesis set up as the ride-to-Hamilton bike/partial testbed (less rackage, try STI shifters, 50/34x11-26, zoomier tyres...) but they're quite similar.

The blue paint is arrived at by different means but it's almost exactly the same colour, which is amusing because I don't think Hugh had an example of the Experiment's paint to look at when he did it.

Janice in GA said...

Nice. That sounds like a lot of fun.

I have STI shifters on one bike. They mostly work fine. Biggest problems: limited trim adjustment on front derailleur; my small, slightly arthritic hands have trouble shifting among 3 rings on front derailleur, so I only change rings when I have to. Kinda negates the reason for having a triple up front. O.o The rear shifter is fine, because the amount of throw needed to shift is not so great. I shift the rear with great abandon.

I'm thinking of changing out the drop bars for more upright bars, and bar-end shifters. Or alternately, just putting a bar-end shifter on the left side.

Graydon said...

Part of my hope with the STI shifters is that I will shift more, yes. (and bend fewer chainrings!)

I find that the bar-ends work fine, but I don't like taking my hands off everything to reach down there to shift. And the particular bar ends (SRAM R2C) are mechanically excellent but desirous of blood sacrifices; very pointy, not meant for the actual bar ends, and prone to stabbing me in the leg if I'm off the bike and the front flops at all.