Questions about building my first bike

[RecordAceFromNew]

Chris Juden's advice on Travel Agents might be of interest, if you haven't seen it.

IME canti performance is about cable adjustment because it affects mechanical advantage and I would be surprised if properly adjusted they aren't good enough for your weight especially if you add some Koolstop pads. But I agree it is a dilemma. Since Surly's standard parts are cantis, why not give them a call and see what they say?

 

[VamP]

Right.

I would point you towards the Ultimates then. Gorgeous to look at too. They also ship with the excellent Swisstop GHP2 pads, which takes the sting out of the price a little.

One thing you might want to consider if you like the more upright position while braking is the addition of bar-top brake levers. This effectivelly gives you another hand position to brake from, and might work well on your descents into town.

 

[PpPete]

I like these on the back.
The SE design rather fell out of ffavour, I think because if they are not set up right they can lock your wheel in a heartbeat, but IME follow the instructuctions very carefully and there is plenty of modulation available. Good match with Ergo levers which include a QR.

 

[Hicky]

Lulubel I'm using Canecreek RL340 levers and CR720 brakes( I have downtube shifters), I am just over(cough) 80Kg and they're as good as the vees on my sirius but I've changed the pads to ashima as the oem lasted 1000 commuting miles and I wasnt too impressed with them.
I find them as easy to setup as vees and havent bothered to "toein" the pads although it doesnt seem difficult.

 

[lulubel]

Fitting a headset can be "interesting" if you dont have easy access to the right tools.

With the saving I got on the frame from Wiggle, I decided to be a wuss (or is that sensible?) and buy the correct tools, so it should be a pretty straightforward process.

Apparently, my frame arrived in a Malaga sorting facility this morning, so it might be delivered later today - or more likely Monday, given the Spanish tendency to pack up for the weekend at lunch time on Fridays - so I'll soon find out how easy or otherwise it is.

 

[lulubel]

My frame has arrived, and it's beautiful. None of the other components I ordered have arrived yet (Wiggle wins that round vs CRC and Planet-X), so all I can do is look at it. I'm looking at it a lot

 

[lulubel]

A couple of specific frame questions ....

The frame has bosses for downtube shifters. It looks like this at the moment:

Presumably, once I break off the black, plastic bits, there will be metal points underneath where the shifters would fit on, as in the pictures in this review. Am I correct in thinking I need to buy something like these to adapt them for use with my STI levers?

In the same review, he also mentions needing a front brake cable hanger. Something like this?

I think the little metal bit hanging from the seatpost clamp in the next picture is the rear brake cable hanger.

I've done a lot of measuring and lining up the new frame against my old frame, and I'm really happy with my choice so far. The forks on the Surly are longer, the head tube is shorter, and taken together, this means (if I keep the same spacer/stem setup) the bars will be within a few millimetres of the height they are on my Trek. The BB on the Surly is 10mm higher, so I can either compensate for this by adding another spacer or flipping the stem, which would have the added benefit of decreasing the effective top tube slightly. The seat tube angle is slightly steeper on the Surly, so I can decrease the ETT further by using a seatpost with less setback, without drastically altering my position relative to the pedals. I'm very, very pleased.

I've decided I'm going to start out with the CR720 brakes that Hicky is using, and see how I get on with them. They only need to stop about 60kg in total (me, plus bike) and they're not expensive, so it won't be a huge loss if I decide to upgrade later once I've decided what I really want. (They're the brakes that Surly put on the bike when they do a complete build.) I'm also going to consider the bar-top levers that VamP mentioned because they might be a good option for better braking in busy areas where I want to be sat up rather than on the drops.

Here's a gratuitous picture of the frame. Probably not to everyone's taste, but I love the way the decals look like they've been painted on with Tippex!

 

[lulubel]

If I've bought the wrong one, I can either send it back (it will only cost me what I saved on postage by having the headset and bb sent together) or replace the chainset now rather than later, if I can afford it. It won't be the end of the world.

Considering I said it wouldn't be the end of the world if I'd ordered the wrong BB, I've just done an awful lot of swearing about it. And I don't even know for certain that I HAVE ordered the wrong one yet because I still haven't taken the cranks off, although that will definitely be happening tomorrow now.

I was idly browsing the CRC website, found myself looking at cranksets, and found this. I was surprised to see a 52/42/30 (the same as I have) because they seem to be quite unusual. And then it occured to me that the original components on the bike were a mixture of Shimano sora and 2300, and the cranks in the original bike spec were obviously not the ones that were actually on my bike because they should be 50/39/30. I'm not sure how I missed that. So, I think I have a Shimano 2303 triple chainset that's been branded Bontrager, and that takes a square taper BB.

Pooh! (to put it politely)

At least square taper BBs are cheaper, I suppose.

 

[Crackle]

That combination is less common now but just a few years ago it was normal. Mine came with that combo and before it even left the shop I'd got the 52 changed to a 49.

You're bound to make mistakes on your first build, luckily that one is retrievable and indeed most are.

 

[lulubel]

That's interesting. Maybe I'm wrong, then. I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

I posted a question in another thread about using a MTB cassette and rear mech on my new bike, and was told it was fine. So, I think I'm going to get an 11-34 cassette and a Shimano XT long cage mech. The gaps between sprockets start out at 2 teeth at the small end, 3 teeth in the middle, and then 4 teeth. Since I'd taken to changing 2 gears at a time on my old 14-25 cassette, I don't think the gaps will bother me. I'll probably end up spending even more time on the middle ring!

(The reason for the cassette change is that I'm really loving the low gears on the MTB I'm riding at the moment. I'm just going wherever I feel like rather than planning my rides each day according to how many/steep hills I want to tackle.)

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

So, I think I have a Shimano 2303 triple chainset that's been branded Bontrager, and that takes a square taper BB.

But as I indicated earlier you are likely to be able to see the flat surfaces entering the crankarms if you have square tapered - you might still be lucky. If it is a FC2303 chance is it will be stamped on the inside surfaces of the crankarms.

I think you have made the right choice regarding brakes. For that model just remember the shorter the straddle wire the more powerful (higher mechanical advantage) it will be. But as with most things there is a price, and that would be at the expense of modulation, tyre and rim clearance. Until your bits and bobs arrive this and the associated links might help kill the time...

 

[VamP]

I have this on both my cross bikes. It is a neat solution to the front hanger, and appears to minimise fork judder too. Not sure if they make it in the size that you require.

Lovely frame! I do like the cross checks. There's a fair few people out there racing them too! (hint!)

 

[Hicky]

The rear brake hanger on yours lulubel is stronger/more substantial than mine.....bit of bent wire, not too impressed and might make something to replace it.
The decals have lasted the winter on mine but I was going to take off all of them apart from the downtube ones.....they seem crap but have lasted.

The 720's are fine, I can lock them up with my 80ish KG on standard pads. I'd of liked to put crossbar levers on but with lights and computer it would have been too busy.....I take it duckegg blue isnt your thing!
Where are the forks?

 

[lulubel]

Where are the forks?

The forks arrived safely. I just didn't take any photos of them. When Surly leave the steerer uncut, they definitely leave a lot of length on it. I was planning to just put extra spacers on until I was sure what length I wanted before cutting it down, but I think I might poke my eye out if I try that!

The duck egg blue is pretty, but I had a hefty discount voucher from Wiggle, and they only had black in stock, so that swayed me rather! Besides, if my OH falls in love with my new bike and wants me to build her one, she'll want duck egg blue rather than black, and we're not having identical bikes again.

I have this on both my cross bikes. It is a neat solution to the front hanger, and appears to minimise fork judder too. Not sure if they make it in the size that you require.

Nice. If I'd known about it before I ordered a headset, I might have gone for that one. It's very similar to the one I ordered. I'll stick with the spacer option now, though, seeing as it's on its way. I can't be doing with sending everything back and changing my mind. At the rate I'm going, I'll be lucky to have this bike built by summer.

I think you have made the right choice regarding brakes. For that model just remember the shorter the straddle wire the more powerful (higher mechanical advantage) it will be. But as with most things there is a price, and that would be at the expense of modulation, tyre and rim clearance. Until your bits and bobs arrive this and the associated links might help kill the time...

That's definitely killed some time. It took me a while (and 2 strong cups of coffee) to figure out what it was on about!

 

[lulubel]

Most of the parts for my bike have arrived now - I'm just waiting for an order that CRC took their time about despatching - so I decided it was time to follow the manufacturer's instructions today and apply a protective coating to the inside of the frame. I couldn't find the "proper" product anywhere (other than a US supplier that said it couldn't be shipped by air because it's an aerosol), so I used boiled linseed oil, which is one of the alternatives.

The reason for protecting the inside of the frame is because it's unpainted, so any moisture that gets in there is liable to hang around and cause rust. It probably isn't that much of a problem for me because I don't intend to ride it in the wet, unless I get caught out in a very unexpected shower, but we do have high humidity here, so I figured it was worth doing.

It was the messiest task I have ever undertaken!

Fortunately, my OH is also a keen cyclist, and she even resisted asking me why I can't do what "normal" cyclists do and buy my bike ready built.

So, my frame is now prepared. It's coated with linseed oil (inside and out), as are the floor, my clothes, and a cat who came to see what I was doing. I'm not sure how long it will take to dry, but I suspect a few days, by which time the CRC order should have arrived, and I can get on with the build.

In the mean time, I shall start on my wheels.