Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Why change one thing at a time when you can change 4

I'm making several major changes to the bike all at once. Figure what the heck try it all out now and get it worked in before the next race.

1) TPC w/lockout damper in place of the bar mounted remote lockout
P1010138

Reason: The remote lockout is a little finicky, and is either on/off so there is no additional compression damping when it is off and feels too soft. This lockout is more reliable and supposedly offers some compression damping.

2)Trying out bar ends again
p1010144

These were some original ONZA bar ends that I'd cut down to stubbies years and years ago that have been in the parts bin since riser bars made bar ends uncool. With the taller front end of this bike and available steerer tube I'm on a straight bar again because of the need for a narrower width to bring my arms in and help reduce a kink in my back. Putting these on decreases bar width by another 1/2" each side. We will see if there is a power boost out of them or if they just get in the way.

3)New wheelset
-It's not here yet. Reason is here: Wheels issue

4) Trigger for the rear shifter / grip shift for the front
P1010139
P1010147

I'd moved from the halfpipe on the left shifter to the regular shorty grip shift several weeks ago to get some more space on the grip. And only now got this X7 trigger for the rear.

Indexed shifters are notorious for causing drag on the front der. cage. The micro-indexing of grip shift is awesome for trimming out that scraping.
Speedgoat even sells this combo ready to go.

I of course found both single shifters on ebay for cheap. I went with the x7 over the x9 cause the only major difference seemed to be just the metal thumb lever. Though on the one I got the screw to access the cable inlet looks ready to strip out the head. It looks to be just plastic with a Philips head. Duh. Even metal Philips heads strip out all the time.

Naturally, I would have loved to go X0 trigger with the insane amount of adjustability in lever placement and lever throw, but that is too much until I decide that I actually like the setup.

One cool thing is that you can place the shifter inboard or outboard of the brake lever. For smaller hands outboard seems better.

My brake hoses are way too long, but I'm not going to mess with that until after the Oct 2nd race.

And since I have no disc wheels I am unable to test out any of these changes that I'm making. After this weekend I'll have some preliminary reviews of this setup.

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