Sunday, May 15, 2011

Time to move on..

Been resting for too long now. Feeling itchy to get moving. Time to head west!

While I've been sitting about, I have been slightly active: updated the the equipment list, new Shimano sandals, new pedals, a phone holder for the handle bars, a small bar bag (actually a camera bag), a pot warmer, a lid for the pot, a chain guard, extra water bottle mount, trued up the wheels, lightened my tools and patched up some of my clothes that are showing wear and tear and other minor items. 

The new Shimano pedals got the same grease nipple treatment as the old pedals. I expect that the top of the pedal where the cleat clips into will wear out before the bearings do. But still, being able to grease the bearings is way easy now.

Removing the handles from the cable cutter cuts the weight from 290 grams to 82 grams. I have four bolts that go in the holes from the rivets, and then can use the pliers for one handle and the shifting spanner for the other. True its not as fast to cut a cable compared to keeping the handles, but I don't need to use it that often. I have cut cables without cable cutters in the past, but it isn't easy. Normal plies and cutters squash both the inner and outer cables. A grinder does a better job on the outers, but unless it has a very fine wheel, sprays out the inner wires. If it was only brake cables, I wouldn't worry about it. But the Rohloff gear cable inners need to fit through small holes. Unless the inner is cut neatly and cleanly its really hard to get them in. Sufficient to say after doing it once with the grinder, I've now got cable cutters. The weight of the tool is now minor. 

I spent a lot of time on the chain guard. Bent up and cut a fair amount of water pipe and electrical conduit before using the core-flute. I wanted to have the chain ring covered, the chain in tubes and some covering over the rear cog. I did get a couple of versions to work, but in the end wasn't happy with the robustness of them. I elected to use core-flute in the end as its light, was easy to fit, and if it does get bashed too much its easy to get off. It looks a bit agricultural at the moment, but I didn't have a lot of choice in the core-flute. The sign I used, I found in the shed under the lawn mower. It was squashed flat in places, and has bends in the wrong spots - part of the reason for the chain ring being visible. It was also a tad to small for what I needed. It will do as a prototype to find how it works.  It stays in place by resting on the frame behind the chain ring, and on the chain stay. One cable tie holds it all together.  Only found two problems so far with it - getting access to check the chain adjustment means cutting the cable tie and centering the wheel is harder as you cannot see the chain stay. It has enough clearance that nothing rubs on it. We'll see how it lasts on the road.