Ryan Cousineau said:In article <[email hidden]>,
Quoted post said:Ryan Cousineau said:In article <[email hidden]>,
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:"[email hidden]" <[email hidden]> wrote:
> It's still a far far way from being my dream bike.
> Kinesis "Kinesium" aluminum/titanium blend frame with carbon fiber
> seat stays and chain stays
> Bianchi carbon fork
> Cane Creek headset
> Sora brakes, triple, and front derailleur. Condition is lightly used.
> Tiagra rear derailleur with clear crash damage scratches. Shifts
> fine.
> 105 brifters in like new condition.
> Shimano Wheels WH-F550 16 spokes (front) and WH-R550 20 spokes (back).
> Bontrager Race X-Lites 23mm tires.
> Selle Italia saddle that is neither impressively comfy or painful.
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:> 2800rmb
The frame is a bit too small and I'm not too sure I'm keen on the idea
of carbon seatstays and chainstays nor am I thrilled with the over
fancy internal routing for the cables so that'll be next.
I wouldn't fret over either carbon stays or the internal routing. The
I'm not exactly fretting over them, but they aren't features that
would convince me to buy a new frame and might, in fact, keep me from
a certain frame if I have multiple choices in the same price range.
It would take someone more knowledgeable than myself about tech
matters to say whether or not they are bad per se but they feel like
unnecessary marketing gimmickry to me. A selling point that doesn't
actually add any real value to the item being sold. Like the
"kinesium" alloy that is basically aluminum with a drop of titanium
thrown in.
Quoted message said:trick with internal cable routing is that it's only hard to deal with
the first time the cables are installed. The trick for dealing with
internal cables after that is pretty simple: Tie a thread to the end of
the old cable before you draw it back through the frame, then tie the
thread to the new cable's end, and pull it back through the frame with
the free end of the thread that's still hanging out the back of the
routing. You did make the thread longer than the internal routing,
right? 🙂
There's also a trick where you use a thread and a vacuum cleaner to do
the first routing.
Quoted message said:I'd also like to change the triple for a double.
There's reasons to do that, especially if you want to upgrade the crank.
You might consider compact double, but I don't know your needs well
enough to recommend that, especially for a road bike. What I like about
compact is the reduced overlap between the high and low ranges, but that
also means you are now dropping around four gears when you shift from
big to small. The shifting on the front should also be theoretically
more marginal, but on my rather new compact double crankset (Truvativ
Rouleur on my CX bike), the shifting is clean and easy, and I'm just
using a Tiagra fder to move the chain.
My other road bike is only indexed on the rear and has downtube
shifters. All it needs is the addition of some proper racks and it'll
be a really good tour bike for mountain roads (today I got asked if
I'd like to ride to Tibet but it seems I'm always just starting to be
busy after a recent long period of inactivity when I get these
invitations). The front triple is a 53/39/30 and the rear is a 8
speed mountain bike cassette and Alivio derailleur with an 11 tooth
high and a 28 tooth low. There is a real [censored] of a hill that I've
used the low on and I've very briefly shifted into the high on a few
downhill occasions before deciding that I was going more than fast
enough thankyouverymuch and should perhaps consider NOT continuing to
accelerate.
Even at my absolute fastest combination of strong tailwind and our
local not-a-pro leading the paceline I don't get above the second gear
(53/13??) on the flats and that's pushing it. It also doesn't last
very long. The very wide range of gears on that bike is probably most
useful for the way it plants some of the more useful gears into the
middle of the range where I can more easily shift on and off them.
(The local not-a-pro's mom and dad are willing to indulge his 'silly
hobby' to the tune of a 12,000rmb wheelset but, even with a real team
trying to recruit him this past winter, they aren't willing to indulge
him to the point of sports as a job.)
The large 53 is a purely coincidental extra unrelated to the reasons I
had for choosing that crankset for the other bike. I doubt I really
need anything above a 50 and should be able to go smaller than that (I
don't know compact crank numbers off the top of my head) without any
real problem.
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:Quoted message said:> I got the only road pedals left and the only shoes that fit.
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:Ah, the convenience of not having a choice! But you know, all the cool
kids race on SPD-type pedals. I'm using Crank Bros stuff now, because
even on my racing bike, I hate not being able to walk. It doesn't hurt
that I routinely multi-mode commute on my trip to and from the Tuesday
night crit...
Quoted message said:Last year's road bike had eggbeaters which have since been moved over
to my mountain bike.
Quoted message said:I really wanted to see how road pedals differ from mountain pedals and
having shoes that make it so I'm not able to walk long distances isn't
a real hardship since I flat out can't walk long distances and really
shouldn't be trying to anyways.
Should be a good experiment. Should you tire of it, there's an available
Crank Bros. cleat that will bolt to a 3-hole (Look) shoe.
I've already discovered the unwalkability of them by falling down the
wheelchair ramp at the Espinozas' house tonight.
Quoted message said:And the road-specific Quattro pedals.
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:> Total weight is 9.67 kilo (21.274 pounds) and the total price comes to
> 3636 rmb ($450).
Best of all, even though I liked the 'feel' and weight and etceteras
of the stuff originally on the bike when I looked at it, these parts
have a lot less wear and tear than the Ultegra that was there.
That matters.
Yeah. I was originally really disappointed when I discovered it had
been stripped and rebuilt. I thought about it a bit more and decided
that the only item I really mourned the loss of was the saddle.
Thought about it a little longer and decided that the likelihood of
getting another chance at a bike like this at a price like this were
pretty slim and went for it.
-Ultegra (triple specific) brifters that had scruffs and scrapes from
having been crashed more than a few times versus 105 (non specific)
brifters that still have shiny enough plastic that I had to perform a
fingernail check to see if the protective film was still there.
-Ultegra triple that I didn't want versus a Sora triple that I don't
want.
-Mavic Aksium Race scarily low spoke wheels versus Shimano 550 wheels
with slightly more spokes (still scary few).
-21mm Michelin tires (those were nice) starting to look a tiny bit
worn on those wheels versus 23mm Bontrager Race X-Lites that appear
completely unused (comparable wear and tear to the same tires on my
other road bike and that bike has had them for only 1500km)
-Ultegra brakes for Sora brakes and hey I was already planning on new
brakes instead of new brake pads in another couple thosand klicks for
the other bike. I'll move the Sora from this bike to that bike and
upgrade then.
-10 speed cassette and skinny 10spd chain for 9 speed cassette and
9spd chain.
-The carbon seatpost was a single bolt type as was the wrong diameter
aluminum seatpost that was in when I got it. 80rmb later and I've got
a double bolt type that fits properly.
-The carbon handlebars were more comfortable than the aluminum ones
now on it, but (even if they were more comfortable than these) they
still weren't the ones I wanted and would have eventually been
replaced anyways.
-Waaaay overlong carbon stem of unknown brand for shorter (possibly
slightly too short) aluminum Bontrager stem. Too short can be solved
by moving the bars down a spacer. Too long can only be solved with a
different stem.
---
Backstory:
Around a year and a half ago the owner got a road bike that was the
same as the bike I had last year. Although the frame was too big for
him he upgraded parts at least once before deciding to make the move
to frameset. A nice frame that fit better was bought for him either
without considering (or caring) that he was not yet 16 and likely to
continue to growing. That was equipped with nicer parts. He
continued growing. These nicer parts were upgraded. He continued
growing. These nicer parts were used. He continued growing. These
nicer parts were crashed and abused. He continued growing. It became
clear that the frame was now insanely too small for him.
All the nicer parts that were stripped off of this nicer (too small)
frame are now on the first road bike's lesser frame (which now fits)
as a training bike. My new bike's brakes are original to that frame.
Nothing else is and I have no idea where any of the other original
parts have gone. Some parts that I now have may have been on that
first frame at one time or another. Other parts I have are probably
original to the first build this frameset but the time gap between
'new bike' and 'now having Ultegra' on the new bike wasn't very long.
The new Dura Ace parts are on the new T-Mobile team replica frame.
Wouldn't you like to be almost 17 and a bike lover whose parents are
willing to spend over USD 5500 on your new bike? (And after hearing
the news of the 23 year old not-a-pro's parents saying he couldn't be
a real racer his parents have also said that they would support his
choices if it ever came to pass that a team wanted him.)
-M
