roadcx.net

Due to the wintry weather, I spent most of the day doing much needed repair tasks that I have put off for a while.

First, I continued the work to convert my old Cannondale CX bike to single speed. I bought an inexpensive single-speed conversion kit a few years back (Forte from Performance). I have read a review that panned it (CX magazine a few issues ago), but decided to push forward anyway. If it didn’t work out, I could always buy another tensioner…

Anyway, when I worked on this last time, I had planned to shorten up my 9-speed chain… that didn’t work because it failed to nicely wrap around the rear cog (part of the SS conversion kit, the cog along with spacers goes over existing Shimano cassette body). Like the tensioner, I will probably replace it with a SS wheel, but all things in due time. Working to put something together on the cheap to start.

So last weekend (or the previous?), I bought an 8-speed chain, but never got around to installing it. I also decided that if I was going to replace the 105 9-speed shifter, I might has well get the RX100 brake lever off as well and make it look a little better. Enter a set of Cane Creek brake levers. So from there, it was snip (old cables), strip (bar tape), and remove (brake levers).

(before: 1×9)

Another choice I made to was to remove the Salsa top levers. I have come to conclusion that I am worse off using these levers since it puts me too upright. The original reason I went with them was due to the poor braking performance with the 9-speed shifter/brake levers. I hope the Cane Creek levers will allow me to brake more effectively.

The brake install went pretty well, although I always forget what a pain setting up the travel agent for the front V-brake. (I need to get a canti brake stop for the fork from somewhere to get these V-brakes off my bike…but again for now, I’ve got what I’ve got).

Installing the drive train was next. I setup the tensioner as I believe it should be setup (vague written instructions, no dwg). I then broke the chain to the correct length and installed the master link. Once I did this, I thought I could take out some slack…so I took out a link pair….too short! So that is why you see two master links on the chain if you look close.

So I found, a new use for the what only a few weeks ago seemed superfluous. I have two geared and one SS bike for CX now, not 3 geared bikes, that would be silly!

(after: 1×1)

I wonder how it will ride, it will probably be a while before I find out given my plans to race the next two weekends (Rouge Roubaix and Hell’s Kitchen). Although, I could probably try it out mid-week at the Farms if it dries up some (ride responsible!).

The weather was still cold outside, so I moved onto my new CX steed, my Ridley X-Fire. It was still muddy from the Wednesday night MTB ride and it hung in my garage in that state, with a flat front tire (which occurred somehow post ride). So I pulled it down and using my new Prestaflator / compressor, I aired it up. Unfortunately, I must have stuck the Silca style pump head on too far and when I tried to pull it off, I pulled the Stan’s No Tubes stem right out into the rim….

First things first, I needed to clean up the bike to deal with this and the other tasks I had planned for it. By then, the snow had melted on the back patio, time to wash it up. The hose, was half-full of slush, so it took a minute to get water flow and a few minutes more to get it cleaned up.

After that, I pulled apart the front wheel to see what I was dealing with. The valve had indeed pulled free from the rim strip. At $22.50 each, I was sort of miffed that I had pulled it apart. So I used a pen to pull get under the rim strip via the hole where the valve used to sit and pulled the rim strip up in the valve area to get the valve out. The valve that pulled free looks a lot like the valve they sell for $8 as a replacement part, basically a presta valve with a bit of rubber on inside end.

So I put the rim strip back and pushed the valve back through from the rim side and now it should be ready to go. I haven’t tried it yet, since I am letting rim and tire dry out first before starting the process. I would imagine that water + sealant wouldn’t work as well.

The main thing that I needed to get done was to swap out the decided un-sealed SRAM Red ceramic BB for a regular sealed GXP BB. This is something I have needed to do before I destroy the Red BB using it in CX service.

I’ll update the progress of the front tire “repair” (probably in the comments unless there is a lot to say about it).

For now, Andrea and I plan to knock out a trainer ride. We will make up for our softness in braving the weather with a nasty VO2 workout. 6×4 min @ 115% FTP+ and 4×2 113%-120% FTP. Total time around 1:45. I have been watching the 2002 Giro that I taped for some reason….remember when they used to have daily covered 4x day for the Giro!?