Monday, February 11, 2008

Finale

The moments after the barrel adjuster came apart in my hand were more discouraging than anxiety producing. Several possibilities immediately presented themselves. For example, the cable could still be routed through the cable stop without any barrel adjuster present. It was the rear derailleur side and the Campagnolo rear derailleur has another adjuster on the derailleur itself. It would function but it would be a cosmetic disaster.

I could get some aluminum paste and put the barrel adjuster back together. It would never move, it would be fragile, it would not adjust anything, but it would be a smaller cosmetic disaster.

I got a drill bit a size smaller than the opening in the frame and drilled out the residue of the stock adjuster. And decided to head to the hardware store for some aluminum paste. I could affix the adjuster back into the spot in the frame, drill a small hole to run the cable through and accept what I had.

On the way I stopped at the shop where I bought the frame, deciding to take a stab at the possibility that a replacement adjuster could be obtained from the manufacturer. It would mean a several week wait which would mean I couldn't ride the new bike. But I do have a really nice steel bike that I could continue to ride in the meantime, it was worth a try.

I looked up the manager who had previously helped me with the frame purchase. I asked him in a very general way about barrel adjusters. He said, "Sure, wait a minute." I waited. He went in the back room and brought another set out.

For which he refused to accept payment.

They fit, they look a little different than the originals but they turn in the threads, they adjust.

This is the bicycle fully assembled except for the bar tape. Added since the last picture yesterday are the chain and the pedals, Speedplay X-1s.Yesterday's final picture is of the bicycle all cabled up awaiting adjustments. Before you can adjust the derailleurs you have to install the chain. I have installed chains before. You take off the one on the bike and lay it down on the floor. You lay the new one down next to the old one and shorten the new one to be the same length as the old one, then install. This a little trickier if you don't have an existing chain to make the comparison.

I checked the usual internet resources and found the information I needed on the Park Tool website. They give a formula:

Simple equation: L = 2 (C) + F/4 + R/4 + 1

L = Chain length in inches. Round the final result to closest whole inch figure.
C = Chain stay length in inches, measure to closest 1/8”. Chain stay for this purpose is defined as distance from bottom bracket center to rear hub center.
F= Number of teeth on largest front chainring.
R= Number of teeth on largest rear cog.

And I calculated the chain length.

The adjustment of the two derailleurs is actually fairly straightforward. Both Park Tool and the manual with the parts give step by step instructions. The issues are high and low limit adjustments and cable tension. You follow the steps, no single step of which is complex or difficult, and it works.

So here I am riding my bike. The bike now has black bar tape, the more or less industry standard Cinelli cork, and a Sigma bicycle computer. Except for that it is pretty much the same as it is in the living room in the previous picture.

This final picture is from somewhere on the road on Day 4 of the 2005 Ride Across Minnesota, the ride from Giants Ridge to Two Harbors. The bicycle functioned perfectly that day and in fact, has functioned perfectly every single day since I finished the build. I have adjusted the barrel adjuster a couple of times and replaced the front brake shoes but other than that I have not had to touch a thing. The bike currently has 10,874 miles.

I call that a successful project.

Oh, Le Havre was held to a scoreless tie on Friday. Monday night Nantes led 2-0 before giving up a goal in extra time at game's end but held on for a 2-1 victory. Nantes closes to 2 points behind league leader Le Havre and now leads fourth place by 7.

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.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Measure twice, cut once, maybe better measure again

A moment of extreme high anxiety arrives. This is one I was dreading, a real no turning back moment, the time arrives to apply a hack saw to the extremely pricey carbon fiber, time to cut the steer tube at the top of the fork.

Another late arrival was the stem. You may be seeing a trend here but I went with the Look Carbostem, again choosing the component manufactured by the bicycle frame manufacturer. This would be my first ever carbon fiber stem. There is a small weight saving but again this was not my main reason for choosing this stem. I was satisfied that this was a good high quality stem. I was pretty sure of this based on how much I paid for it. I did not have a specific ride quality or mechanical function reason for choosing Carbostem. The deciding factor was that it says LOOK right on it. I was building a LOOK, I took this one more opportunity to name brand the bike and to also avoid putting some other name on a highly visible part.

Compare this picture with the Look stem to the previous pictures with the Deda stem and see whether or not you agree that LOOK was the correct stem choice.I stood the bicycles side by side and did lots of comparing. I had the tape measure out and measured distance from floor up to handlebar height, first on one bike, then on the other. I have a couple of spacers on the steer tube underneath the stem and I was able to move the bars up or down by adding or removing spacers. I kept measuring until I had the handlebars at the same height as on the other bike. I had already established the saddle heights as the same, if I get the handlebars the same then the drop from saddle to handlebars has to be the same and the only remaining item of fit should be cockpit length, length from saddle forward to handlebar. This was an important measurement, I had to get it correct.

With this type of fork, it is necessary to load the headset bearings, the bearings that facilitate rotation of the steer tube, the bearings that allow you to steer the bicycle, it is necessary to load the headset bearings by tightening a head cap that applies pressure downwards on the stem to create the bearing load. The stem is not tightened on the steer tube until after the head cap has been tightened.

It is therefore pretty important to get the steer tube length correct. Screw this up and you will be riding without front end bearings. Of course, you could also cut it too short and not have sufficient room above the head tube to attach the stem.

Measure twice, maybe better measure again. Mark the steer tube. Maybe better stand it next to the other bike one more time and take another look.

But finally . . .I purchased the part you see fastened into the vise. It is a steering tube cutting guide, one of the ultimate single use tools. Once you have determined exactly where you want to cut you insert the fork into the cutting guide and line up your intended cutting line with the slot in the tool.

Even the hack saw isn't as simple as it may seem. The recommended blade for cutting carbon is a high tooth count per inch blade. I do not remember the numbers right off hand but I do know I went to the hardware store for hacksaw blades. And obviously, since we are talking about a several hundred dollar part, the recommendation is that you go ahead and splurge and use a brand new $1.79 blade. Do everything you can to maximize the possibility of getting a good clean cut.And here is what came out the other end of the process after a successful cut. The front end of the bicycle has now been assembled.

Several spacers came with the frame. I am not sure how clear it is in this photo but there are two 10 millimeter spacers underneath the steam and a single 5 millimeter spacer on top. Each one of these spacers presents another opportunity to get the word LOOK attached to the bicycle.

Personally, I think with the LOOK stem, the LOOK spacers, the carbon weave of the spacers and the carbon weave of the upper headset, the carbon weave visible on the head tube, and the carbon weave coming into view on the top tube, the whole array of parts comes together quite well and presents an elegant appearance. I think it looks nice.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Comparisons

The next steps were to mount the saddle and assemble the handlbars.The shifter/brake mechanism mounts with a single clamp tightened by a hex bolt. You fold back the rubber hood and the bolt is exposed. Slide the brifter to the position on the bar where you want it and tighten the bolt.

There are four cables that have to be threaded through the brifters and back to the parts that they will operate. There are two on each side, one for a brake, one to operate a derailleur. The right hand operates the rear brake and the rear derailleur, the left hand operates the front. The only even vaguely tricky part is where to position the brifters on the bar. This was made easier for me by the fact that I already had a bike that I deemed to be a near ideal fit. I just compared the parts for the new bike to the parts already on the old bike and positioned the parts similarly. I think I pictured the tool that you see here because it was the same tool that was used both to tighten the clamp on the brifters and to mount the saddle on the seat post.

With the saddle it was merely a matter of getting it level and then positioning the seat post in the seat tube at a point where the saddle was the same distance above the center of the bottom bracket as the saddle bottom bracket distance on my other bike.Here the bicycles are side by side. Note the similarity of geometry of the frames and that the saddle heights are about the same.

I was looking for some more information about the KG381i and found some pictures on cyclingnews. They are copyright so I cannot produce them here. However, I have requested permission from cyclingnews to use the pictures and will post them if and when I get permission.

In the meantime, the Look KG381i was last actually used in the 2002 Tour de France, not the 2003.

Hamilton's solo breakaway was the 16th stage of 2003 and was on a Cervelo. However, in 2002 Laurent Jalabert did win the King of the Mountains competition riding this bike and was rewarded by Look with a special "spotty" bike for the final parade stage into Paris. The downtube message is "Merci Jaja".

The 2002 frame was selected "Bike of the Year", making three straight years that Look won this award. Both CSC Tiscali and Credit Agricole rode on Look KG381i that year and French riders Laurent Jalabert of CSC and Christophe Moreau of Credit Agricole are pictured along with Look's president receiving the award. Although CSC switched to Cervelo the next year, as recently as 2007 Credit Agricole was still riding Look frames.

The Look KG381i is a really nice bicycle, one of the nicest bicycles on the planet.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Construction anxiety

There were, of course, anxious moments.

The frame has inside the frame cable routing for the rear brake cable. This was my first bike build so obviously I had never done this before but even more troubling, I had never even seen this up close. I drove out to Hudson to the one place I was certain would have built up Look bicycles on the shop floor. They didn't have my exact frame but they did have a couple of frames with inside the frame cable routing. I looked. It looked simple enough and when I asked about it the mechanic on duty said it was simple enough . . . But this was going to be an anxious moment.

When the brake bolt didn't reach there was anxiety. There are only so many times you can take the part out, look it over, push it back in and this time press really hard on the two parts as you try to get them to mate up. After a while it just clearly isn't going to work. But, even when I reached this moment I wasn't quite ready to panic.

The frame does not have a seat post binder as is usual for most bikes. It has an built in expander that tightens and holds the post. To expand the expander you tighten a proprietary Look only seat post bolt in a port at the top of the seat tube. I bought my frame at a warehouse sale and the expander bolt was missing. I had to have the shop where I picked up the frame order the bolt for me. It came, I plugged it in, it worked easily and really well.

So then the brake didn't seem to work. I knew I was dealing with a major frame manufacturer (Look) and a major parts manufacturer (Mavic). I figured that there might well be a special part that I didn't know about. I went to the best bicycle shop I know of (County Cycles) and asked. I was confident they would help me.

I just didn't know how very easy it would be. Scott never batted a eye, he just went in the back room and got the two other lengths for the bolt in question.

There were a couple of other anxious moments to come.

Monday, February 4, 2008

Move to basement

Okay, so now I have reached the point where I start hanging components on the frame. A professional mechanic would move the frame to a repair stand to get the various tasks up off the floor to a level where the tasks can be performed standing up. I don't have a stand and being as building a bicycle is going to be a very rare event in my life, I just went ahead and worked with what I do have. I decided that I could bend or squat down to the do the work. But before I could proceed with even this plan I needed for the bicycle to stand up and I needed it to remain in a stable position.Obviously the time had come to install the wheels. I moved all of the parts to the basement. The skewers went into the wheels and the wheels locked into place on the dropouts. The bicycle stands up on its own for the first time. It is starting to look like a bike.

The brakes originally were on back order but now they showed up in a most timely fashion. They were the first component installed. All of the Campagnolo component groups, henceforth "grupettos", include brakes. The Chorus brakes are as well regarded as the rest of the Chorus parts but I deviate from the Chorus build to go with the Mavic SSC brakes.

I made this choice for a couple of reasons. I had the Mavic brakes on my other bike and always found them to be completely functional and therefore acceptable from an operations point of view. They are a tiny bit lighter than the Chorus brakes, and a bit more expensive.

However, the real reason I chose the Mavic is because they are black. Black bike, black parts.

I also had to make my first trip to the bike shop to install these parts. The brakes come with a threaded post which fits through a bridge on the fork for the front brake and on the seat stays for the rear brake. The post is fitted with an elongated nut which completes the reach through the bridge and holds the brakes in place. In this case the front fork bridge was too thick and the nut that came with the brakes would not reach.

I went to County Cycles, Scott went in the back room and came out with the longer sizes, of which there were two. I took no chances and bought them both (at a buck each) and left secure in the knowledge that it was almost certain that one or the other of them would work.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Day 2 parts delivery

The next day most of the rest of the things that typify the modern bicycle arrived on my front porch. The boxes in this photo are Campagnolo components, the saddle is a Selle Italia Flite.I chose to build the bicycle with what would generally be referred to as a "full Chorus" build. These are all Chorus parts (blue printing) with the exception of the chain which is Record (red printing). Record is the top of the line component group, Chorus is the second from top. I chose Chorus because Chorus has all of the functionality of Record. The parts design and interior workings are identical (for example, bearings instead of bushings). Record gets a few extra carbon bits and therefore slightly reduced weight to go with a substantially higher price. It does not work any better. The buzz is that Chorus is the thinking man's Record or alternatively that Record is the pretentious man's Chorus. I chose Chorus (while giving myself a self-congratulatory pat on the back).

The large box behind the saddle contains the crankset. I chose the 172.5 crank arm length with the more or less standard 53-39 chain rings. I chose the double front because I very early on determined that the hills in and around the area where I live can all be conquered with the gearing available with these chain rings. I can climb anything I come to around here in a 39x26 and actually I do almost all of my climbing in the 39x23.

Next is the rear derailleur, the mechanism for moving the chain to change the gears on the rear wheel. Next is the cassette or sprockets for the rear wheel. The cassette choice is the 13-26. This features 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 23 and 26 toothed cogs. I ride mostly in the 17, out in the middle of the cassette. I don't sprint much but when I do I usually get only to the 15 or very occasionally the 14. As I said above, I climb in the 21 and 23 with the 26 for the likes of the Myrtle Street hill.

Next over is the front derailleur, the mechanism for moving the chain between the rings on the crankset. The largish twin boxes hold the brake lever/shifter mechanisms and cables for connecting up all of the parts. The smallish box in front holds the bottom bracket.

A note on the saddle, I had been riding a fi'zi:k Plateau. The Selle Italia Flite is highly praised, generally considered to be one of the two or three top saddles available for this kind of riding. I wanted to try it out. I rode it a couple of hundred miles and just never really adapted to it. I found a new titanium rail Plateau on eBay for an excellent price and made the switch back to fi'zi:k. I have since also equipped my Michigan bicycle with the same saddle, albeit with the stainless steel saddle rails.Construction is starting to get a little more serious as I have now moved from the living room of the house down one floor to the TV room. I am not in the basement yet. This photo illustrates completion of one of the major steps in bicycle building, the installation of the bottom bracket, now visible in its place in the frame. The bottom bracket is THE moving part of a bicycle, the pivot around which the cranks turn. Because you don't want any screw ups here the procedure is to thoroughly clean and face the threads in the frame. Some recommend a light coat of grease but I chose to follow the instructions that came in the box with the part which counseled that no grease was required. It does take a fairly high level of torque and this is where the large scale torque wrench came into play. The bottom bracket has a unique configuration of grooves and splines and there is a special bottom bracket installation tool (the blue package). I had to go to Sears for a large enough socket (1 inch, next to the bottom bracket tool) to fit the tool and the torque wrench.

The bottom bracket tool is not a single use tool as it is also used to tighten down the cassette onto the rear wheel (same groove and spline pattern). You don't have to measure torque on this application, you just want it good and tight. I had messed with cassettes a few times previously and I already had the large box end wrench for this task.

Yesterday in Sedan FC Nantes and CS Sedan played 90 minutes of scoreless football and followed it up with 30 minutes of scoreless overtime football. The game was then settled by a penalty kick shootout. Sedan prevailed 4-2, eliminating FC Nantes from le Coupe de France. As noted by their manager after the result was final, FC Nantes is now free to concentrate on the item of overriding importance, the championship of Ligue 2 and return to Ligue 1.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Groundhog's Day

I am not sure what the deal is for Phil from Pennsylvania but here in the Heartland the day begins overcast with no possibility of any groundhog seeing his shadow. I believe this portends early spring.

I ordered all of the parts in a flurry lasting only a couple of days which resulted in parts arriving in bunches. Here is the Day 1 delivery:The main arrival on this day is the wheelset. They are Campagnolo Protons, a factory manufactured wheelset based on Chorus level hubs. The wheels feature a symmetric 22 spoke front and an asymmetric 24 spoke rear. They came with their own proprietary plastic rim strips and a wheel bag. Also visible is the box for the Look Ergopost2, a full carbon seatpost from the same manufacturer as the frame. In the plastic bag is the bars, Deda 215, 42 cm, with the shallow drops. I also purchased a few tools. Some of these tools I may only use once and I realized it was an extravagance but I wanted to do the complete construction myself and if I wanted to do that I was going to need all of the necessary tools. Here you can see a Park cable cutter, specifically designed for cutting bicycle cables and cable housings. Would a regular cutter have worked? Probably. The brown Park Tool box contains a special tool to assist in cutting the steer tube. In the big white box is one of two torque wrenches that I bought. There are several places on a bicycle where correct torque is extremely important, particularly when dealing with carbon parts. I bought two torque wrenches because you need one for the high torque fastenings like the bottom bracket and you need another for the much more sensitive measurements for the small torque fastenings like the stem.

The stuff that I had read on bicycle build ups before I began all said that the bottom bracket and the headset are the first two jobs. This frame came with an integrated, or already built in headset so I didn't have to do that. It is an FSA by the way, a company that has specialized in parts for ultra light frames and particularly carbon. I didn't have the bottom bracket yet but I had parts and I was excited so I started to build.I had some Vittoria tires that I had gotten a really good deal on on Ebay and every bicyclist always has some tubes around. I got the rim strips onto the wheels and added the tires. By the way, I ended up being pretty dissatisfied with those tires and switched back to Michelin ProRace which I had already been using on my other bike and which I continue to use to this day.

I inserted the seat post although obviously no attempt was made at this point to adjust it. I inserted it because I had it and I soon discovered that it made a useful handle.

The stem visible in this picture is not the stem I bought for the bike. It is just one I had around which I fastened to the steer tube to keep the fork from falling out and also to use as a handle. Day 1 is complete. By the way, doesn't our floor look great?

For those pining to know, when we last checked on FC Nantes they were 6 points ahead of Le Havre but had played 2 more games than their rivals. Since then FC Nantes has played twice and Le Havre has played 4 games meaning that the teams are currently even on games played. Nantes has added zero additional points as they lost both games including dropping a 1-0 decision to Le Havre at Nantes last Monday, the Canaries first home loss of the season. Le Havre has scored 3 victories and a tie for 10 additional points. Le Havre has emphatically assumed first place in the table and now leads by 4. Although disappointed with second after the long run at the top, Nantes is still pretty comfortably in the promotion zone.

Today most of the games of the next round of le Coupe de France are being played. Nantes plays at Sedan. An interesting sidebar is that there is a game at Nantes. A CFA2, or 5th level league team from a town near Nantes, Le Poiré sur Vie (near La Roche sur Yon for those who are familiar with the geography of the Vendée) has survived to this round of the Cup and has drawn a home game against Ligue 1 foe Paris Saint Germain. The small club has taken advantage of the economic opportunity of playing the game in the larger stadium in nearby Nantes.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Bicycle blog

So it is supposed to be a bicycle blog after all don"t you know? But with the coming of February there now have been two complete months during which I have ridden zero miles. February is likely to make it three complete months. On the bright side I am willing to predict that there is a very low probability that the streak will reach four months. I expect at least a couple of rides and a few miles in March.

My residual fitness has not slipped as much this year as in some years past. I spin for 20 or 25 minutes four or five times per week on the stationary bike in the basement. My legs still feel pretty good, I think, although any ride of greater than 25 minutes will obviously involve issues.

Further, even though my fitness has not slipped as much as in some years past, the fact is that last year I never felt that I achieved the level of fitness that I achieved in other years. The certainty in all of this is that when outdoor bicycling begins it will be an adventure.

To begin the return to the bicycle theme I am going to run a series on a couple of my bikes. I am pleased to be the owner of two of the nicest bikes on the planet and today I begin to introduce one of them.I bought the frame at the 2004 end of the season warehouse sale of the local bicycle chain store. I ended up in face to face negotiation with the owner of the chain. I bought the frame for $200 less than wholesale. The owner remarked that he was paying me $200 to take the frame out of his warehouse.

It is a Look KG381i. The year of manufacture for this frame it was the team frame of the CSC Professional Bicycle Team. They switched to Cervelo the following year. The KG381i is the frame that Tyler Hamilton rode on that famous one day solo breakaway victory in the Tour de France in, I think, 2003. That Tyler Hamilton ride was, of course, the foreshadow of the great Floyd Landis solo breakaway of 2006 that resulted in Floyd's positive drug test and disqualification. Being as Tyler tested positive after the 2003 season I suppose the thing to believe is that Tyler's breakaway may have had the same fuel as Floyd's 2006 ride.

In any case, there isn't any reason to blame the bike. It is a fabulous frame, it fits me, it is full carbon tubes and fork, it weighs nothing, nothing at all.

I bought it as you see it here, bare frame. I selected and purchased all of the components individually and therefore ended up with just exactly the bike I wanted. I built it up myself.

Tune in to watch the step by step process.