This week, I got to the shop late and I was wondering if there would be any time to add anything to the frame or not. The headset is now ordered but still not in, so I even debated putting anything on yet or not. Ed, though, said "why not?" so I went forward.
From this point I got all CT geeky and took pictures all the way through.
I like cassettes...there is something intriguing to me about this naked transmission of gears. The old and new photo shows the 8 spd 11-23 that WAS on the wheel next to the 10 spd 11-25 that is now on the wheel.
How about the 10-speed spred out? The change of colors indicates the change of material: titanium. Lots of holes and grouped as 3, 2, and 5 singles. The Dura Ace lock ring is the cherry on top!
And then the corncob went on...it is a little fatter than the old one, but oh, the places we'll go.
From there I continued with the drivetrain. To the non-cyclist, the rear derailleur would seem a mystery. To me it looks like the alien-to-be curled up in its pod awating Sigourney Weaver's laser blaster to shoot it to hell. Nonetheless, it is an intricate piece of machinery with coils and pulleys that manages the micro-shifting of any bike. With this whole group the coolness comes in its two-toned quality of slate gray and polish!
Here's the last photo of a naked frame.
Even on the bike, the derailleur still looks fetal...coiled and waiting to spread out and churn away.
A lot of newer crank shafts at going to a hollow unit. So I may have mistakenly referred to this as the bottom bracket (which, technically, it is) these are actually the two sides' cups that hold the crankset. The sealed bearings are in the fat ends of this unit.
Shimano is a smart company that with their highest-end stuff, they are still going to put a labels on these parts to indicate which wat to tighten--I appreciated that. I don't know how many times I've tried to discern the direction of the threads to confirm the credo of tighten to the rear with BBs.
The crowning jewel of any drivetrain is the crankset; it is the biggest part of the drivetrain, and the higher you go, the prettier it gets. On my Gunnar, the carbon Chorus crankset is the prettiest part of it. Dura Ace isn't carbon, in fact, it looks bulky.
En contrare--the backside of the chainring arm is hollowed out! It is super light. It is standing up on its own since the hollow spindle is attached to the crankarm itself.
What's good for the front is good for the rear.
The front derailleur is such a simple piece that does so much. The main control of the macro-shifting mechanism has an elegance to it as it shifts from ring to ring.
The last thing that could be done--since there is no headset yet--was the rear brake.
The greatest challenge was to determine the appropriate shoulder bolt to use. From Kestrel and Shimano, I had two longer bolts; however, when I first put one in the frame, it didn't reach the brake bolt. So I found the longer shoulder bolt designated for the front, but with that was used, it bottomed out before it tightened.
So I went back to one of the other longer shoulder bolts and it worked just fine once I pushed it in all the way...duh.
Finally, the rear wheel with new cassette was put in. Before I hung it up for good, I had to weight it one more time. The frame weighs 3.4 lbs; at this ponit, with a lot of parts to go, it is right at 11 lbs.
Now the build is on hold for a couple of weeks.
