Thursday, August 4, 2011

Off With You!

On with you!
Or something like that.
Today, I decided was to be a rest and recovery day.
From what I don't know.
I mean it's not like I was hurting walking down the stairs.
Maybe it was that creak that's been keeping me up nights or maybe it was watching the wind blow through the tree in front of the Flat Tire Command Center(FTCC).
Anyways it seemed like a good day to do some trimming.
Steerer tube trimming that is.
I got tired of looking at all them spacers stacked on top of the stem and besides it wasn't exactly safe.
This being a one inch tube, I have to use a spacer on the stem and using spacers on top is not recommended.
So off came the fork:



What I did was to remove the top spacers and mark it with a well, marker.
No problems with the headset, this being a Chris King, the fork came right out.
On my MTB, it had a Cane Creek and I had to use a hammer to release the fork.
I'll have to revisit the headset again for the pieces are not all the same color.
More on that later.
I had to move the star nut down the tube a bit, so what I did was I got a like sized socket and gave it a couple of taps:



You sort of have to make sure to tap it down evenly or else you'll cock the star nut in the tube.
I used the stem cap bolt sticking up as a reference.
Anyways, out came the Dremelizer:



Don't forget the safety glasses!
I also have one of them small mitre boxes, I used that the last time I cut a tube down using a hacksaw.
This time, I figured it's not really the final cut so I just used the Dremel cut off wheel.
Then I stuck the tube in my vise and went over it with a couple of files:



To obtain optimal flatness don't you know.
Okay not really.
It came out a bit off, but not enough for me to care.
I just sort of made sure to take off all the sharp edges.
Then I put everything back:



Actually I should have waited some, at least until I try out the new stem, but I was tired of looking at that knob sticking out on top.
I had to put a thin spacer on top for I didn't cut the tube down far enough.
Measure twice, cut once.
Well, I only measured once.
My new to me Tacx bottle cages came in today also.
I was going with the same black as the Celeste Devil, but decided to go with the silvers as I thought it would match some of the trim on the Ciocc:



That's the On With You! part.
Now I got two cages on each bike, ready to do some distance cycling!
Okay, not really.
Maybe.
On my Around the Horn epic, I found myself running low on water and it's better to be safe than you know what.
I'm not so sure I like them though and I've been thinking about taping them up and painting them yellow.
You know, like on another rest day or something.
Okay, so that's the end of your regularly scheduled programming.
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The Flat Tire, We're Just Not for Breakfast Anymore.

4 comments:

Steve A said...

I think those water bottles look very nice with the bike.

John Romeo Alpha said...

I think I might have waited to try out the new stem first since I got derailed in a similar project when the new stem had a different clamp height than the old one, as well as slightly different offset from the top, which I had thought I could use as a reference to try to change just one thing (reach) but it seems that you can never change just one thing...

Steve A said...

You need to redo it and take video this time!

limom said...

Steve A., maybe them cages will grow on me.
When I do cut the tube down again, I'll be sure to document and next time I'll use the Flat Tire Industrial Steerer Chopper(FTISC).

JRA, same stem, different reach.
I'll remember to check stack height next time though.