[GB]

@jabberwocky 119573 wrote:

I’ve had two sets of GP4000s, and out of the four, three have died premature deaths due to sidewalls failing.

Gator skins FTW. I’m not sure what you consider premature, but have 3k miles on my gator skins and I’m very happy with their overall performance.

[GB]

@Rockford10 119563 wrote:

, and the cherry on top, one middle finger.

This is where riding with both hands free really comes in handy.

[GB]

For a longer date, we took a very nice over night trip to Leesburg. 20 miles out on the WOD, AirBnB check-in / shower and change, walk into Leesburg for dinner and drinks, coffee in the morning and then back on the trail heading home.

[GB]

Coffee – Green Lizard and cafe amori
Beer – caboose and old ox (although old ox hasn’t happened yet)
Pizza – Church Street
Ice cream – Nelson’s in Vienna and gelato in Reston town center.

These are all within 10 miles of our house so they are a nice ride for both of us and allow for a little rest in the middle. Gotta be careful not to over indulge on the stops or 10 mikes home can be a little unpleasant.

[GB]

@hozn 119501 wrote:

No problem on the wheels! — but would request them unlaced (i.e. not half laced), as I’d prefer to start from clean slate. Nothing worse than getting near completion of a wheel and realizing one of the spokes was on wrong side.

So for routing the cables through the frame, I believe the straws they provide — assuming they are like the ones I have — are just there for initial guides and should be removed once the cables are routed through. Keep them around for next time you need to change cables, though.

I would get all your shifter housing cut and in place (taped down to bars, etc.) first, before running any cables, but that is probably obvious. You should probably try to get your stem in the position that you expect it to be in — may be hard w/o riding, but you can at least start with your road bike — since that can affect housing length. (I assume you’re not planning to leave that much steerer below the stem; that looks like a potentially dangerous amount on a carbon fork — I think max 40mm? May depend on the fork & steerer plug setup.) You will want to trim your fork down as soon as you figure out what height you want, since the stem should be clamping the fork where it is reinforced by the steerer plug (i.e. at the top of the fork).

Some frames accommodate full cable housing through the frame; others have cable stops and expect the housing to end at the grommets in the frame. Not sure from photo, but looks like you may have the latter? (Also did you throw out the liner hose for the FD cable?) Nothing is needed to “attach” the housing to the frame — just put on an end cap and it will be held in place by the fact that the cables are always under tension. For the end caps (I just call the actual cable end caps “ferrules” though I think the housing caps can also be called ferrules?), just make sure you ordered the size that matches your housing. Shifter housing is typically 4mm; brake housing (obviously not relevant for you) is 5mm. I often use “universal” jagwire housing which is 5mm for both shift and brake cables.

Loving the red hydro cables. You went all in on this red & black color scheme!

You don’t want to start with my half baked 1/4 kinda finished wheel set?

For the straws, I saw a video with the kind you’re talking about, mine are not like that. Straw, while a good word, probably isn’t the best given that there are actually straws used. Mine is more like an internal tubing built into the frame.

Yes I ran the cable without the housing just to figure out how it goes. I’ll take it out when I put the housing on. I did read a post somewhere from guy that cut his housing to length with the cable in it. Glad I read that review otherwise I could definitely see that happening.

Yes, I think my frame is intended to have the cable housing stop at the frame. Thanks for confirming that tension should hold it in place. Why tape the housing to the bars before running the cable? That seems like it would make things a (very little) bit harder.

I’ll probably cut the housing with stem as is and then circle back to it when I trim the stem. (It’s much easier to cut the housing shorter (or live with it a little too long) than it is to cut either the stem or housing longer).

“did you throw out the liner hose for the FD cable?” The answer is no, because I haven’t thrown out anything, but is the liner hose the same as the cable housing? Just because I haven’t thrown it out, doesn’t mean that I have it.

“the stem should be clamping the fork where it is reinforced by the steerer plug”. Thanks, this makes sense but I hadn’t thought about it.

“just make sure you ordered the size that matches your housing.” …. We’ll find out in a day or two #learningasigo #readmoreinstructionsbuymoreslowly #thisisgettingexpensive #stillcheaperthanafullyassembledbike

Yes I’m happy with the colors so far. She was going to called Betty, as in Ram Jam’s Black Betty, but I’m wondering if she should be someone from 50 Shades because she’ll have 50 shades of red by the time I’m done. Betty is still the heavy favorite.

[GB]

@GB 117254 wrote:

The plan is for me to do the leg work on lacing the spokes and check in with Hozn for truing and tensioning. We’ll see how reality works out.

Plan B – Beg Hozn to build the wheels. Getting little spoke nipples plus little spoke washers through little spoke holes in the right order is very tricky.

I started with the wheels thinking I’d get through those then give them to Hozn for the detailed work while I assembled the bike. Turns out I made basically no progress on the wheels and as a result, no progress on the bike. So I’ve abandoned that plan, skipped the wheels and started working on the bike. As a result I realized that the front deraulier clamp I ordered in size 31.8mm is too small for my seat tube. The seat clamp is 31.8 and fits the tube, the tube flairs at the base and I need a 34mm clamp. Also realized that although I have the shift cable and housing I can’t install it yet because I don’t have ferules, little metal inserts that protect the ends of the cable housing from the cable. Both of these issues were resolved with Amazon 2 day shipping. Although I’ll have 25 ferules.

I figured out (watched the YouTube video for) attaching hydraulic cables, which was something I was a little nervous about. The system still doesn’t have the hydraulic fluid in it yet, but the connection process seems simple enough. Only ordering 1 brake line was another oversight.

Something that went surprisingly well – routing the cables through the frame. ICAN thoughtfully left little straws in the frame to guide the cables, so I just inserted and pushed. Something that I’m still trying to figure out – how to attach the cable housing to the frame where the cables go in. Any thoughts?

Here are some pics.

[GB]

@seunpu 119349 wrote:

We have a group of 4-5 that has FMCC at Green Lizard every Friday. We ride in from Leesburg and arrive at about 7:45 AM. We usually stay for an hour. This Friday it might only be me and few others since for some it’s a holiday.

I’ll be there. Maybe a little closer to 8 than 7:45.

[GB]

@hozn 95740 wrote:

I think the FMCCIII regulars unfortunately arrive at 7:45am. (That would be Steve E et al.).

Rebel coffee’s moving to Hoth, I mean Herndon, on Friday. Rebel scum and the boys in white are both welcome. No Sith or drones, their kind isn’t welcome.

[GB]

@Steve O 119012 wrote:

The more I look at these the more it looks like they were designed to allow cars to keep moving by curving around this way and/or that way and then attempting to MacGyver in bicycle facilities on top.

It’s almost as if these roads were designed for cars.

[GB]

@AFHokie 118948 wrote:

Ford announces a prototype electric bicycle

I wonder if any of the design will end up on other bikes?

I think these two would be fairly easy and useful to incorporate into current ebike/bike design, particularly the integrated lights.

“A function known as “no sweat mode” tunes into the rider’s heart-rate in order to apply just enough electric pedal assistance to keep him or her from breaking a sweat.

Specially designed LEDs are integrated into the design to maintain visibility, without the need for after-market accessories.”

[GB]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8939[/ATTACH]

I’ve got the parts (minus saddle and pedals). The question is, can I build it in time for Kill Bill?

[GB]

@vvill 117339 wrote:

Not radial!

[HR][/HR]

Something I didn’t know before, spoke length changes based on lacing pattern. I locked in 2x lacing when I ordered the spokes.

The red nipples arrived from Taiwan yesterday. Are they red enough? I’m thinking yes. Also shown, red cable clamps. These are aluminum and are definitely a more vivid red. Should I apply lube/grease to the nips or the washers? I was planning on linseed oil for the spoke threads, good idea or not?

Thanks

[GB]

Despite ordering from different websites at least 2 weeks apart the wheel parts (excluding red nips) arrived yesterday. Weekend project – figure out lacing.

[GB]

@dkel 117275 wrote:

You clearly have more experience with that stretch than I do! I drive that way a lot, but I’ve always felt that for cycling, Lee Hwy is just a bit too high-volume and fast-moving for my taste. That’s just me, of course; it all comes down to comfort level and experience. There are plenty of roads I ride now that I used to avoid. One bad experience can definitely color your opinion of a road or route, though. I ride up to McLean once a week, and though I’ve only had a couple of bad experiences doing it, I still frequently feel a sense of dread, though I’ve done that trip dozens of times without incident. Weird.

I believe what you are describing is summarized in Rule 64.

Very sorry to hear that you got hit. Very happy to hear that you walked (rode?) away from it.

+1 for calling the company with the information you have.

[GB]

@hozn 117255 wrote:

Oh, if you got black hubs, then I would do black for sure. Or just see if you like the red nipples; it is your build, after all

We’ll see. I changed the hubs to black after seeing my flashy road wheels which have a black hub a red nips and look bling. Plus kayakcyndi is rockin’ orange nips on her otherwise black wheels and they look bling too.

[Author]

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