Sunday, February 10, 2008

Isn't anyone amazed that I have this many pictures?

The next couple of steps were without difficulty. The bottom bracket presents a square shape on each side of the frame. The cranks have a square indentation in the crank arms.The cranks slide on, without difficulty, and are fastened with another hex head bolt. There is a recommended torque for this application but as explained earlier, I have all of the necessary tools for this task and the manual that came with the parts specifies the torque. Easy.

Next up the derailleurs, again pretty simple. The rear derailleur bolts on again with a recommended torque but without any other factor involved that could get screwed up. Easy.The front also bolts onto the bracket on the down tube. Two things come into play here, the recommended torque, and the clearance between the derailleur cage and the large chainring. The derailleur is positioned so that a penny will fit between the chainring teeth and the derailleur cage. The manual counsels that this distance is critically important and that a bit of adjustment may be necessary later. Apparently I got it right the first time as I have never budged that attachment bolt since the second I finished the original installation of that part.

Next up are the cables and there were a couple of issues here. The first task is sorting the cables, you get two long ones for the rear applications and two short ones for the front. The brake cable differs from the derailleur cable so you have to figure that out. Then you have to thread the cables through the brifters. The brakes threaded without much drama but the shifters were a little more problematic. There was some awkward poking of cables into the recesses of the brifter blindly hoping that the cable end would find the hole that it had to pass through. Eventually they both did.

As the cable moves outward from the brifters towards the brakes and derailleurs you have to cut cable housing to appropriate lengths. The cable has to curve and if the curve is too sharp the cable will bind up inside the housing causing operational difficulties. The manual provides photos of more or less what you want it too look like but since each bike is different you do not get something as simple as, say, cut 12 inches. You get cut enough to make a curve that looks like this. This was stressful.The cables inside the housing have to be taped to the handlebars as you go to keep them in place. The housing is quite stiff and it does not readily assume the shape of your handlebars. Strong electrical tape keeps the cables in place for now.

The through the frame cable passage was, as promised by all, completely painless. You slide the housing over the cable, insert the housing into the hole at the front end of the top tube and there is apparently a plastic passage inside there as the housing comes poking out at the back of the top tube without the slightest amount of having to poke around to find the proper aperture.

There was a moment of extreme anxiety however, when I was running the derailleur cables down the down tube. The cables, at this point bare of housing, pass through adjusters at the top of the tube. The ones on the frame were aluminum and one of them was stuck.

This maybe should not have been a problem but I am stupid. I persisted in twisting the adjuster to try to get it loose. It seemed to me that it had to turn freely. It is, after all, an adjuster. If it won't move you cannot adjust anything.

Yup, aluminum is soft. I twisted it off, leaving the main part of the adjuster in my hand, the threaded part still firmly stuck in the frame.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey, I'm pretty sure I did comment on how well you documented the process. That counts.

I am surprised that the deraillers went on that easily -- somehow I thought they might have been difficult.

That whole cable routing thing sounds highly complicated. Braking and shifting are pretty important to the whole bike operation thing. I assume this story has a happy ending?

Michigan's weather is pretty awful. I-196 outside of Zeeland, I-96 near Coopersville and I-94 north of Kalamazoo were all closed today (Sunday). That pretty much shuts down west Michigan. One county declared a state of emergency due to impassable roads.

Winter needs to be over in about 3 weeks. Not looking likely.