Postby salcedo98 » Fri Aug 29, 2014 9:12 am
Ok, so I've put about ~270k on the bike now and it's been pretty good.
t-rav, several weekends ago, not long after I bought the frame from you the weather was spectacular and since I have a newborn at home I cannot currently get leave passes to go riding. I got impatient waiting for the sandblaster to call me back so I just spent a few ours on Saturday stripping the paint, then on Sunday I put 3 coats of "2X ULTRA COVER SPRAY PAINT" dark grey on the frame and forks. It's one of those primer and paint all in one deals. Given that a high end pedigree couldn't be identified for the frame, I figured on a low budget build.
I have encountered some problems.
- saddle kept tilting forward, seems to be fixed with some carbon friction paste
- the post dropped a few mm, I took out a bit more metal on the inside of the clamp bolt holders so the tube around the seat post would tighten up a bit more
- one gear kept slipping, I thought it was cable stretch or maybe it was just poor Microshift stuff but it turned out to be 3 broken teeth on the cassette, big fail for SEQlite (only ~140k on it), I won't be using them again. I also moved the rear wheel right back in the sliding dropouts.
- handlebars are too skinny for me, I will be putting wider ones on this weekend but I'll have to use an ahead converter as I don't have a wide 25.4 handlebar. It's not as aesthetically pleasing but it'll do the job and hopefully I can find a silver stem on the cheap.
- tyres are rubbish and heavy, but I knew this from the start I just had them spare at the time, new ones coming
As for the Microshift, it's been great, I can't fault it, and the new Ultegra cassette I put on has made shifting quieter and way smoother. I'd definitely buy it again, and I'm hoping a hidden gear cable version is coming. But, since the design hasn't changed for several years I doubt it's going to happen.
So apart from wider handlebars, I'm probably going to invest in some lighter wheels, combined with the new lighter tyres this should make spinning up a fair bit easier.
The bike overall has been built without too much expense and I'll definitely be keeping it for now