Thursday, May 13, 2010

New Frame for the Black Wheelset

Thinking I might build up a new bike with the Alex wheelset, I picked up a 63cm Centurion CompTA frame on Craigslist. It's a well preserved Japanese frame, from '84 I believe, made of double butted #2 Tange chromoly steel. It's a nice silver and charcoal color scheme, which goes well with the black hub, spokes, and rim. It has some Shimano 600 parts on it which I'll put away or sell on eBay.

Strangely, I found out that the axle on the front Alex wheel is too big for the fork.

Duh-oh!

WTF? I'll have to file out the dropouts to allow for the fatty axle. I didn't notice this until I tried to fit it on the Centurion fork. Not knowing whether this was something with the Centurion fork, I tried the wheel on another bike, and it would not fit on it, either.

I hate doing something permanent like enlarging the slots. My bikes tend to go from one incarnation to another, and I don't like making changes that prevent reverting to the former use. I suppose that a slightly larger opening won't hurt anything....

I will post pictures of the new wheel and the new frame ASAP. I'll have to collect some parts now, including a seatpost, seat, some bullhorns, a new stem, a pulley and cable stop (although I might try setting it up with the downtube shifter again), a crankset, and the other bits I'll need to get on the road.

What am I going to do with two 3 speed fixies?

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Lash and Cone Adjustments

Red kiosk, aka Jim, sent me an exerpt from somewhere on the internet, written by a guy in the UK who has had some experience with the S3X hub. See the comments from my last post to get up to speed.

I found his comments interesting, and largely agree with his assessment of the Way Things Are. However, I have had no hint of the dangers of "neutrals" in the hub while shifting up or down, or in standing on the pedals. As you may remember, I have been wary of the possibility of the hub slipping out of gear and sending me on an endo while standing. This used to cause me some concern, but so far, the thing has been rock-solid. You do have to be ready for the shifts, and anticipate the changes in pedal speed, for sure. You do not want to downshift too early at high RPMs.

I had to loosen the locknuts on both of my hubs in order to adjust the axles to fit my 126mm frame. The silver hub was set up to 130mm and the black one was 120mm. I had to add or subtract spacers in order to fit. This caused the cones to loosen on both, and I had to readjust them as best I could. I will take Roger's advice, and research the SA adjustment specs. He does say one thing that rather confuses me. He says that after adjustment you want "... some play at the rim..." At the rim? I don't know what that means. I'm looking at lash at the pedal, but maybe he's locking the pedal and measuring the # of degrees the wheel moves in slack?  Any ideas?

I also agree that you want somewhere between 80-90 gear inches in the top gear. I have something in the mid 80s, and would like a bit more. However, my town has massive hills and the bottom gear doesn't quite cut it, as is, so I'll have to live with it. I may even put a bigger cog on, if I can't get fit enough to climb the last leg home without fear of stroking out. The dragginess of the lower gears I have mentioned and Roger mentions seems to be Not a Problem. I have not noticed any significant drag since I've learned how and when to shift.

This hub rocks. I am having a great time riding it, and don't miss my Paramount fixie one bit. If you can, and you think you'd like the flexibility of 3 gears, get one. You won't be sorry. Like the sage said: "If you have to ask why, you'll never understand."

I have been thinking about putting the second wheelset on the Paramount, or maybe my classic Mercian frame? Blasphemy? Who cares?

Thanks for participating in the discussion. I do appreciate it and hope that we can be of help to anyone interested. Any comments are welcome! Don't be shy! Let us know what you think and what you know.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

The New Wheel

I don't remember if I mentioned that the first S3X hub I bought was a silver one that needed building into a wheel. After I got it, I found the Bike Island site which had the black wheelset for a great price and free shipping. So in the interests of easy and quick, I got the wheelset and mounted it on the Bianchi. It is the one shown in the pictures. I never did put the front wheel on, not liking the black so much. I figured I'd get around to building the silver wheel eventually, and start using it instead.

I bought spokes and an Open Sport rim from Harris Cyclery, and following the directions for a 36 spoke 3x wheel on Sheldon Brown's wheelbuilding site, laced it up and trued it as best I could. This was my first go at building a wheel, and it went OK. I had to enlist some help in getting the thing round, but but was able to tension and true it laterally on my own.

BTW, building your own wheel is not cheap. You will pay way more for spokes, nipples, hubs, and rims than a company that makes lots of them does. And you end up paying shipping charges, which are not cheap for wheel-sized packages. I paid more for the parts to build this wheel than I paid for the wheelset from Bike Island. It was an interesting experience, but I won't do it again unless I can't buy what I want off the shelf.  

I mounted it and took it out today for the first ride. Interestingly, it has less lash in the hub than the black one. I suppose it's from a later run, and they have been improved some. I think it looks a lot better than the semi-aero, black Alex SUB wheel on my bike.

There was no performance difference that I could tell. It worked great, shifted smoothly, and stayed true. Now I'm wondering what to do with the Alex wheelset. Maybe I'll find another frame somewhere....