New Front Wheel for Gunnar

I don't really have a good excuse for doing this, but I've built a new front wheel for Gunnar. As you might remember, currently he's running Wolfgang's old Alex-DA16-on-Deore 36 spoke wheel. While this works just fine, the internal rim width of the DA16 is 16.3 mm (at least according to their website) and thus technically a teeny tiny bit to small for my 700x23 tires. But I admit: this is a lame excuse for my urge to build a new wheel. An additional boost to this urge actually came from a gift from my friend Löby, who gave me an old but functional dial indicator. The idea is to mount it to my truing stand, theoretically allowing me to true wheels down to 0.01mm. Well, I'm still working on the attachment to the stand which turns out to be a bit tricky.

But I've built up the wheel anyway. It's a 32 spoke Mavic Open Pro with DT Swiss Comp 2.0/1.8 spokes on an Shimano Ultegra HB-6600 front hub. After lacing the wheel the wrong way twice, three times was the charm and now it's all trued and tensioned. Figuring out the correct spoke tension was a little tricky because my Wheelsmith tensiometer's calibration table only gives values for their own double-butted spokes which are 2.0/1.7 and not 2.0/1.8. But since the absolute value for spoke tension is not that crucial anyway (Mavic recommends 1050-1100 N) it shouldn't matter too much.

One final note about the wheel: the Open Pros don't come with a wear indicator. Therefore I've measured the thickness of the rim's sidewall. A trick to do this: attach a little magnetic ball to your caliper in order to get around the flange of the rim. My measurements came to almost exactly 1.5mm. This should give me a good point of reference for judging rim wear.

Spring maintenance and upgrades

The weather is lovely outside and tomorrow we'll be going on the first FLCC Sunday Ride of the year. Today (and a good deal of yesterday), however, I did a lot of work on Wolfgang. I installed a new granny gear, a new front derailleur, I checked and repacked the rear hub bearings; switched from Ritchey Cross Tires to the Conti Gatorskin slicks; and I wired my accomplice's BUMM Toplight Line Plus rear light.

Switching from double to triple clearly was the most laborious process and actually I wasn't able to complete it successfully. I had bought a Shimano XT FD-M773 front derailleur, a Salsa 26t chainring and a 118mm bottom bracket to adjust the chainline. Using the fabulous Park Tool instructions, the cranks came off, the bottom bracket was removed (required several attempts and a bunch of WD40), threads cleaned and regreased, and the new bottom bracket installed.

As I had to take off the chain anyway and the current chain had reached the .75 mark, I also switched the chain back to the old chain. What I immediately noticed was the difference in corrosion between the two. The old one was an Sram PC 971, the more current one to be switched out a PC 951. Despite mostly fenderless use during the 2008/2009 winter, the 971 was completely corrosion free; whereas the last winter had left significant traces on the 951. The difference between the two chains is just a couple of dollars--and the fact that the 971 is nickel-plated. I'll definitely keep this in mind when buying another chain.

Finally, I put on the third chainring and the new derailleur and started adjusting. This is where the trouble began. I couldn't get the derailleur to clear the small chainring, even when the L limit screw was set to the max. I initially thought I had done something wrong, maybe with the height adjustment. But after extensive consultation with my online friends, I've come to the conclusion that derailleur and bottom bracket just don't go together, even though the specifications and Glenn's expertise implied otherwise. What I'll try next is to re-install the old Tiagra derailleur and see if it's going to work -- apparently double front derailleurs often also work for triple.

Odo Wolfgang 3954 km
Odo Gunnar 1048 km

Upgrade for Gunnar

Courtesy of the yearly sale of German online bike shop Rose, I've ordered a little upgrade for Gunnar. As you might remember, currently I have the old Alex DA-16/Deore wheel from my Cross-Check installed. The upgrade will be a Shimano 32H Ultegra Hub with DT Competition spokes on a Mavic Open Pro hub. That should shave a couple grams off of Gunnar's weight, look nicer, and be more appropriate for running thin tires. But first I have to wait for my Germany visit in order to pick up the components.

Is it spring yet?

Just a quick update:

• It's still winter. Today the snow has reached us and I might go on a little adventure on the South Hill Recreation Way on my way home from campus.
• Forecast for next weekend looks comparatively good (high of -1°C), so maybe I'll be able to go for a ride.
• The new Brooks feels pretty good so far, but due to the weather I haven't had a chance to test it on a longer ride.
• in terms on working on the stable: I installed an Avid Single Digit 7 V-brake on the accomplice's bike in order to increase stopping power and allow installing the BUMM Cyo headlight
• upgrade plans: On Wolfgang, I'm going to install a triple front crank as part of a general spring overhaul. In terms of parts and work, this will require something between the ideal of only switching the front derailleur to a triple and  the worst case scenario of a new bottom bracket, new front derailleur, new (longer cage) rear derailleur. Most people who have done this conversion on a Cross-Check seem to be switching their bottom bracket from 113mm to 118mm, but maybe it'll work without that. Certainly worth a try. 
• My ebaying efforts haven't been terribly successful: The two Oryx brakes were sold for a whopping total of 2.50$ and two of the saddles didn't sell at all. At least the SDG saddle sold for 19.50$ but I'm still awaiting payment. But whatever -- at least I got rid of some stuff.
• Another potential upgrade: I might try buying a used Zzing USB charger for running my GPS and charging cell phones via the hub generator. There's a good DIY solution out there, but if I get a used Zzing it wouldn't save me much money and my soldering skills are a bit rusty.
• As you can see on the accomplice's blog, we've signed up for a biking Memorial Day weekend in the High Peaks Region of the Adirondacks! It's still far away, but I'm really looking forward to it. 

High Peaks of the Adirondacks