Here is a little history first.
I have been cycling for years. Have done all maintenance on my bikes
with the exception of wheel building. Friend has a stand and likes to
do this.
I recently found what I thought was a great deal on an older Merlin
Titanium Frame on E-Bay. I have been considering a new road bike to
upgrade from my 1989 Schwinn Ontare. I wanted to move away from
downtube shifters.
Ok, I have gradually, over the last 8 months accumulated all the
necessary components and I am ready to assemble the bike. I have a few
questions;
1) The Threadless headset technology is new to me. The Fame came with
a stem and fork. I needed a longer stem so I bought Thompson stem.
The issue is the height of the new stem is slightly less than the
original. To fix this, I need to buy new spacers. My question is how
high do I want the top of the stem to be? Just slightly above the top
of the steerer tube? Flush with the top of the steerer tube?
2) Second questions, and maybe this will make more sense when I try to
assemble it, but how do you assemble the cassette? Do you just slide
the cogs on the free hub and maybe there is some kind of locking ring
to hold everything together. Here again, I this is new technology. I
have a 7 speed Suntour freewheel on my old bike.
3) Ok, one more question. Here again, this may make more sense when I
assemble it. The new crank/bottom bracket set up. This is a triple
DuraAce crank set. It appears to have the spindle attached to one
crank arm in the box. This is totally different from my old Phil Wood
bottom bracket and Superbe Pro crank. Any secrets or hints here?
4), I lied, one more. Any trick to adjusting the Shifters on the Brake
levers?
I appreciate any knowledge anyone is willing to pass on to me. I
really don't want to have this assembled by a professional, just
because I like to do things myself, but I may have it checked by one
after I assemble it.
Chris
MrR1150GS " at " gmail " dot " com