Cycling Kit Rant Update

Good news for tall freaks. There are two different bib shorts from 2XU that have 12" inseams. They are not listed as tall bib shorts but they certainly are. They are the "Active Cycle Bib Short" and the "Road Comp Cycle Bib Short". Here are two pics. In the first one I am wearing the 12" 2XU "Active Cycle Bib" and in the other I am wearing Mavic 9" inseam shorts. Both look OK in the picture but the problem is when you are riding the 9" ones climb up too high for my liking. I wear a 36 waist and 38 inseam in jeans and these shorts are size XXL and fit real good.

2XU Active Cycle Bib - 12" inseam

9" inseam shorts

I have ordered the  "Road Comp Cycle Bib Short" and a 2XU jersey in XXL and I will let you know how they fit.

Cycling Kit Rant

Just a quick rant. Why doesn't anyone make a cycling kit tat fits tall people that is cool and not a million $$$?

I broke down and spent a bunch of money on a Mavic HC 125 anniversary kit and it looks bad ass and is all that and stuff. It even matches my wheels - BUT the bibs fit like hot pants. Maybe not that bad but they ride up pretty high.

There are three cycling clothing company's that make tall cycling kits (Jerseys and Bibs) that I know of. But they each have an issue in my opinion.

Aerotech Designs - I bought a pair of their back tall (11" inseam) sized bib shorts and they fit great and the construction is good. But their designs are just not my style.
http://www.aerotechdesigns.com/big-and-tall-cycling-apparel.html

Zinn - Design of their tall kits are OK. The single grey leg panel on the bibs does not do anything for me. Of course you pay a big $$$ for this plain design. The jacket looks pretty cool though.
http://www.bigandtallbike.com/Big-Tall-clothing_c_58.html

Hill Killer Apparel Company - These guys have a bunch of tall cycling clothing and the pricing is pretty good. Their bibs have 12.5" inseams. They have a bunch of state flag jerseys and an Old Bay seasoning jersey. Not my style. They do have a cool jersey that says "Hill Killer" across the front. I like the look but I need to get my conditioning up before I wear that across my chest on a group ride...
http://hillkiller.com/mens/tall

Anyone know of another company out there that makes tall cycling apparel for tall freaks?

DriveTrain Upgrade

I will be upgrading the drivetrain to be a 1 x 10 with good high and low range. Since the bike is currently set up with two chain rings in the front and 6 cogs in the rear one would assume the bike has twelve different gear combinations. However, when I ran a gear calculator I learned that two gear ratios are exactly the same and that two others are really close (within 0.1). So in essence I have 9 usable gear combinations. The gearing on my bike now is rather narrow with a 14 tooth small cog and a 28 tooth large cog. I am going to get that range a bit wider with a 11-36 cassette. I am omitting the front derailleur for three reasons.

Reason 1: I don't like cross chaining or even having to worry about cross chaining. Cross chaining is the condition where the chain is running across the drivetrain centerline -- for example:  From the BIG Front chain ring to Biggest Rear cassette cogs, or from the SMALL Front chain ring to the Smallest Rear cassette cogs.

The diagram below shows the 2 different cross chaining conditions.  Shown in Top view, looking down on the chain, chainrings, and cassette.  (It is shown as a triple, but is applicable for a double just as well.)

Description via: http://www.bicyclechainrings.com/crosschaining.html

Reason 2: I want to reduce weight by not having a second chain ring, derailleur, shifter and cables

Reason 3: Simplicity

Here are the components I am using and the reasons for each.

CRANKS

I just picked up some through axle cranks off of a facebook bike swap page. They are going to be lighter than the old square taper cranks that are on the bike now. These new ones have 172.5mm vs. the 170mm crank arms on there now. That should give me a sight bit more leverage but will cost me some ground clearance with my low bottom bracket Schwinn frame. But 2.5mm is going to be negligible either way. I also just purchased some titanium single speed chain ring bolts from ebay - mainly to be cool - and they were not that expensive vs. steel ones. I just did not want my bolts to start rusting as this bike already sees plenty of rain and mud.

BOTTOM BRACKET

SRAM GXP - No brainer. Will be plenty smooth and light.

CHAIN

10 speed chain - Not sure what one yet. I think Stainless steel will be the way to go. I will not get a Shimano chain that requires those special break off pins.

CHAIN RING

Going to get a narrow wide 130 BCD - 38 T. The new narrow wide chain rings apparently work great in combination with a clutch type rear derailleur. They prevent the front chain coming off the front chain ring. I have a standard chain ring 1 x 9 setup on my mountain bike and had to put a chain keeper on. Hopefully, this narrow wide chain ring will do the trick. There are three major brands out there making them: SRAM, Raceface and Wooth Tooth Components. I am leaning toward the Wolf Tooth Components model because I like the unassuming look of it. Sadly I have not found a silver narrow wide chain ring to match the rest of the bikes silver components.

CASSETTE

Going to get a 11-36 Shimano XT most likely.

SHIFTERS

I picked up a set of GEVENALLE (Retro Shift) shifters. This should be interesting. The two drawbacks I see are that you can't get to the shifter from in the drops - but my current shifters are on the stem now - and that you can't hide the shifter cable under the bar wrap. They appear to be good quality and are much less $$$ then a set of brifters. I will see how they work!

REAR DERAILOR

I purchased a new Deore clutch type rear derailleur. It features Shadow Plus! What a great marketing name. It allows you to lock the derailleur from bouncing up and down when you go over bumps. You can unlock it when you need to remove the rear tire. Again will be interesting to see how this works.

FRONT DERAILOR

NA!

WHEELS

Still researching.

What's New

Well not too much new to report on the Schwinn. I have been riding a good deal on the bike in it's current state. For the small amount of $$$ I have spent on it, it rides really good and I have not had any major breakdowns. I did recently kill each tube when I over inflated the tires to 80 PSI (vs. the max marked pressure of 70 PSI). Over the course of two days both tubes failed at the valve. When I changed them the tubes looked at least 15 years old and were a good deal thicker and heavier than the ones that replaced them. So my ride is now lighter.

With a little mud

Slightly cleaner and with the back pannier on

The next upgrade is going to be the drive train. I have two complaints with the stem mounted shifters.

1. They are too close to my knees when I am out of the saddle.
2. They keep losing tension and every now and then will phantom shift down a gear.

I am going to convert the bike to a 1 X 10 using one of the new Shimano clutch derailleurs, a narrow wide front chain ring and a Gevenalle (Retroshift) brake lever mounted shifter. That will give me me 10 gears that are comparable to what I have now. Currently I have the original 6 speed rear and two chain-rings up front. The original gearing has a gear ratio that overlaps so really it is only an 11 speed. I am going to gear it a bit lower so I can climb and explore off road a bit more. I will most likely get a new 104 BCD mountain bike crank set when I do the upgrade. I would like a through axle to make the cranks lighter and stronger and the 104 BDC narrow wide chain rings area about half the price of a 5 bolt version narrow wide chain ring. The upgrade gets to be a bit more detailed as I will need at least a new rear wheel to fit a 10 speed cassette onto. Especially more detailed since I am thinking about building the wheel myself. more to come on that...

Old vs. New Gear Ratios

The new drivetrain I am planning is a 1x10 that will give me 10 total gears. The drivetrain I am replacing is a 2x6 that provides 12 gears. However, I calculated out the gear ratio for each combination and found that there were some overlaps. To my surprise I only have 9 unique gear combinations inthe current   drivetrain. I will get more gear combinations with the 1x10.

Here is the current 2x6 gearing using "gain ratio". The yellow items are the overlapping gears showing 9 actual gear combinations. I am using 46T and 36T front rings with a 14-28 six-speed freewheel.

Here  is the 1x10 set up. There are 10 gears with a higher and lower gear combo than the old setup. I will use a 39T chain ring and a 11-36 cassette.

Brazing Rack Mounts

Did some rack braze-ons last weekend. It was a little tough because I used MAPP gas and it took a awhile to get to brazing temperature. There was a sweet spot temperature that was hard to get to without burning off too much of the flux. The biggest solution came when I was taking flux from other parts of the assembly and moving it into the area I was working on. I practiced a bunch on a piece of scrap chrome-Molly and felt comfortable enough trying it on the bike.

Getting the parts hot enough for the silver to flow when I had the parts clamped together was a challenge. Once I put a tack weld of silver solder on and could remove the clamp the silver flowed OK. I don't think I will win any awards for the looks of my brazing but the mounts are on very solid.

February Update

I have done a little work on the bike since the last post but I hope to be getting some things done in the next couple of months. I moved in November and have been busy setting up the house and my new bike workshop. Here is a picture of the bike after a nice gravel ride around the new neighborhood. It rides great but still needs work.




After a slightly sloppy gravel road ride

New updates include:

Brazed on new cable stops on the top tube
Brazed on cantilever post on the seat stays
Brazed on a brake bridge (Need to put a new one on one day as this on is too small)
Put lower geared chain rings on up front (46 and 34 tooth front chain rings)
Put on new drop bars and brake levers
Put on a new 350mm steerer tube fork