The Circumcision

...well it is all about a catchy title, isn't it?

So, part 2 of last Sunday's bike built effort was the more, "meaty" part of the afternoons antics and did, quite literally, see the Heckler receive a circumcision.

This:

Became this:

 

Using this:

Yes boys, I instil in your minds the cringe-worthy thought of a circumcision being performed with a metal saw...

Right, so this was probably the most nerve-racking job I have done on the Heckler so far. So the steerer, which is the top tube on the fork, which connect through the frame steerer tube and ultimately have the handlebars firmly attached to them, by default ship longer than most would require. The idea being you cut to size. Reasons for cutting to size could be size of your stem, size of the bike or ride angle you want. For example, a lower "cross country" style bike could have a shorter steerer to bring you more over the handlebars and front wheel. A more downhill/AC bike could have a longer one to sit you more upright. Now notice in the first picture above the stem is sitting right down on the frame, in picture two there are several rings or "spacers" between the stem and frame. These spacers allow you to lift the handlebars above the frame. Similarly, I could remove the spacers to lower the bars. The latter would either mean another cut, or putting a spacer above the stem but below the locking cap.

I have purposely put 3 spacers in for now. I tested with just the one large spacer and it felt fine, but just in case, I threw 2 small ones on, just in-case I want an adjustment in future.

Why is it nerve-racking? Well if you fuck it up and cut it too short, by by forks! (unless you a. manage to sell them to someone who wants low handlebars or b. you relegate them to strictly ornamental purposes).

So the cut. Per recommendation from the trusty bike maintenance book, in the absence of a vice, I removed the fork from the bike and mounted it in my bike work stand like so:

Before removing the fork from the frame I had all required spacers in place and marked a line on the steerer where it protrudes from the stem. According the bikers bible, I needed to cut 3mm below this line so the steerer sits just inside the stem.

Unfortunately, when I made the cut, I cut it at a slight angle (any of you fellas have that issue?!). I will need to get a metal file and flatten it out. However, for reasons I really can't be bothered going into, I don't think it will ultimately matter. As you can see in the above picture, the top of the steerer is hidden under the locking cap, and I do not think (though I am sure I will be proven wrong) the top of the steerer is critical in the locking of the whole system.

The head set is quite a fascinating collection of bits. In a previous post, I showed you this photo:

 I am actually carefully holding together a collection of "bits'. Below is a picture that gives you a better idea of the bits involved. There are actually about 15 components if you separate out all the washers and bearing runs!

 The bit in the top right corner of the image above is an interesting one. It is called the "head doctor" by Hope and I think is a really cool way to lock everything together. Now as every rider knows, any slight movement in the head set as you hold the brakes and rock the bike back and forward (indicating everything is not tightly locked together) sucks! Basically with this system what you do is insert that silver cylinder into the hollow steerer tube. This "head doctor" basically expands in its place by inserting and turning an allen key. This holds the head doctor firmly in place. You then insert the bolt/locking cap and as you turn the bolt (which attaches to the head doctor) it pulls the steerer up and tightens everything together, leaving the only movement being that provided by the bearing races in the top and bottom headset - ie: left and right steering!

SOOO, I find myself with something that is looking very much like the finished product. There is one very fiddly task to do yet, which I will tackle next - cabling the shifters to the front and rear derailleurs.

Some photographic evidence that this is finally nearing completion (excuse the shabby looking seat post - it is temporary - so I could sit on the bike and get a feel for the setup).

 

My resident artsy-pharty photographer was in da house as well to bring you this piece of photographic prowess....

 

Remember children, word of the day, circumcision!

Justin.



So it continues...

Another big push today to get the build complete - it was needed after 2 weeks off the job, and a random blog in between to fill the void for you blog happy lot.

I went for a ride today. Ourimbah. Damn that is one great track. They have done a large amount of work on it - 3 laps and 25kms later, I was one very happy little vegemite. Irony seems to strike in "ironic" ways... It seems ye ol' faithful Giant is injured, and bleeding - literally. What was a small oil leak in one of the front fork stanchion has turned into a something that I really should do something about - a worn rubber seal I assume. On top of that, there is a lot of movement on the rear shock - which I think is the bolt and wear around the eye of the shock. Mr Giant needs fixing, badly. The heckler needs to make its debut, quickly...

So today saw a rapid reduction in the boxes of "bits" as they all find there way onto the heckler. Short of the chain and cabling for the gears (which alas I need to get cable housing for to complete) I have something that looks like the final product.

Job 1 - Remote lock out cable for the front forks attached.
Lesson 893 - Never throw out instructions.

I had to find an online manual to double check how it attached. Here it is attached, cable yet to be cut.

The lock out button attaches of course to the handlebar. Small real estate problem pending - the remote lockout for the forks is left handed, as is my gravity dropper. I am fairly sure it will all fit on. Though I am worried about my cranial capacity to steer, brake, change gears, lock and unlock the front forks AND operate the seat gravity dropper with my left hand. I'm not even left handed!

Lock out button, with grip, brake & shifter attached....

Now I bought the blue grips to go with blue steel. It is slightly lighter than the blue of the bike but still looks ok. I mainly bought them for the gold locks on either end (oh and yes, I actually do like the peaty grips - currently on the Giant and I am super happy with them).

 

And here is the cockpit of the rig, looking decidedly more bike-like....

 

 As you can see, I have put both shifters on. This was about all I could do with the shifters, notice the rolled up cables? Alas, the shifters did not come with cable housing, so I will have to pop into the shops to get some housing (a small addition to the total cost). The cabling is also slightly, "busy" as one of the brake cables is too long - alas I do not know how to bleed a SRAM braking system so will sneak it into the shop to sort it. I am liking how the front is looking with the gold, silver and decals on the handlebars.

Job 2 - Affix derailleurs. Very little to say here. Pick up said derailleurs, screw on. Jobs done. Front and rear derailleurs attached....

Pedals were also installed so I could roll around on the bike and get a feel for the ride height.

 

 

Final job of the day was cutting the steering and putting the rest of the head set together. Alas though, the Formula 1 starts in about 20mins, and every man needs priorities.

 

Stay tuned, if you know what is good for you...

Justin.

Like A Boss!

Was cleaning up my desktop and oh hay, I just happened to find these pictures of me on a bike, being all awesome.

Down-hilling off the Skyline Gondola chairlift, Queenstown NZ, March 2013. Bike was a Giant Glory Comp with Boxxer forks. Sweetest fun ever.

Now on first glance these may look like sub-standard photos, but they are actually stills taken from the Go-Pro (action video camera for those not up with the times). They are actually frames from a movie being filmed by the Go-Pro attached to the side of a mates helmet. Not bad hu?

Me in a photo with Sean, him being photographed with me makes the awesomeness rub off on him as well...

 No progress on the bike build this week I'm afraid. The weekend filled up far quicker than expected.....

 

Have a good week my loyal followers...

Justin.

Come Together...

....Riiiiiight now,

.....Heckle Me.

Well after today's antics, the Heckler is now looking like, well, a bike. After being side tracked for a few hours getting the commuter sorted (new bottom bracket and kevlar lined rear tyre to prevent punctures) it was a productive afternoon building.

Today I had Forman Sean helping me, hence yours truly is in a few of the photos (sorry about that). Lots of snaps for today's blog as well.

Right, firstly, the shims for the stem & handlebar. Attached, pain free. I wanted to get the handlebars on as a total of 6 different controls need to be mounted on them and cabled to the bike; 2x brakes, 2x gears, a gravity dropper and front fork remote lockout.

 

 

 

Main job of the day were the brakes. A bit fiddly to get on, I loosely mounted the levers to the handlebar to keep them from getting in the way while I mounted the callipers and loosely cable tied the cables to the frame mounts to keep it all together. Here I am at my bogun looking best.
 

The callipers have spacer washers with them to get the calliper to sit properly on the rotor. If the calliper is too close the rotor will hit the back of it, too far and there won't be enough "bite" of the pad on the rotor.

The silver callipers are "the" shit as well. They look magic! Now a little trick to get the calliper lined up flush on the disc is to loosen the calliper, apply the brake then tighten. I love this shot, brand new calliper, rotor, hub and cassette. Saucy!

 And here is a token shot of stormin' formin' Sean pretending to help, I guess he had to try and look busy since he drunk all my beer! ;-)

 

Finally, not having a spacer between the stem and frame was bugging the shit out of me so I popped one in. I also put the gold seat clamp on (temporary seat post as the Giant will be donating it's gravity dropper soon).

 

 And the progress score... (note the writing on the tyre lined up with the writing on the rim - a little tip from Sean).

I'm really stoked with how it is starting to look. Still a way to go (gears will be the next job I'd say).

Oh, and artsy fartsy stormin' formin' Sean gave it some mood...

Justin.

Well let the build begin (cont)....

Fellow Earthlings,

Again, apologies for the gap in blogs. Yet again, less interesting things, like work, continue to consume my precious time...

Right, now where was I. Ah yes. The last build session, part 2. The below is work I did in the first session.

The cranks...

At first I wondered what the hell I got myself into when I opened the installation instructions. Seriously. WTF!?

After getting my head around which diagrams were applicable to me I got stuck into it and found it was actually quite simple. Compared to a normal sealed bottom bracket the GXP system is light and simple. A little grease, a specialised tool to tighten it up and a few re-adjustments and yet another job the queen doesn't know about. I'm really happy with the cranks. Look good on the bike, smooth and very light (carbon fibre). I did notice the come very close to rubbing on the chain stay - I'll put some protective stickers over it.

Next it was onto the head set. Remember the headset looks like a small gold cylinder....

 

Well, I am holding it carefully - it is actually made up of about 15 bits, caps, cups, washers etc. etc. When mounted on the bike it sits above and below the steerer tube, above and below the handlebars etc.. It basically holds it all together.

Firstly, inserting the top and bottom cups into the steerer tube. Now it is recommended to machine the top and bottom of the tube so the surfaces are perfectly parallel, but as this is a new frame from a respected manufacturer, I took the assumption they already did this. The cups sit EXTREMELY tightly into the steerer tube, and you are meant to use a special vice like tool to put them in.... For fear of torment and ridicule, I am NOT going to tell you how I got them in...

 
Then, to give the front end perspective, and allow me to put on most of the other headset components (including top and bottom bearing runs), I mounted the forks, and put the stem on, lightly tightened, to hold it all together. I put aside the remaining parts of the headset still to be put on (such as the top cap). Now, there are several things wrong with this photo, namely I have not yet cut the fork steerer to size, nor are there any spacers between the top cup and stem and worst, the whole thing is not tightened. BUT, what do you think of the gold bling against the blue frame? Saucy?

 

To finish the day, I fitted the wheels to the frame to make me feel I had at least made some progress on the build. Unfortunately, I discovered I forgot to order a skewer to hold the rear wheel in place; my downhill frankenbike contributed his until I sort one...

 

 



I plan to crack on next with the handlebars - so I can start assembling all the controls (brakes, gears, lock out etc...).

Over and out,
Justin.

Well let the build begin...

...Such was the commencement of my build. After getting the tools out and work stand setup, I proceeded to the first (and probably easiest job) putting the rotors for the brakes on. Remember now, 160mm rotor for the front and 140mm for the back (just like a car or motor bike, the front bears the brunt of braking so you need something stronger on the front). So after screwing in 12 most fuckingly annoying star screws, guess which air-head put them on the wrong wheels... So, unscrew 12 star screws and screw in correctly. That's 36 screwing actions, when only 12 was needed. Douche bag.

Only a few minutes after that, I realised a mistake I made with the stem and handlebar. Stem hole = 31.8mm, handlebar, 25.4mm. Douche bag, again.

Here was my problem:

And here was my solution:

Shims. Upon further inquiry with some of my less mentally challenged friends, I found out that the larger stem is actually not so bad as the 31.8mm is becoming more standard than the 25.4mm. Had I not got the shims, my options were replace the handlebars (didn't want to as I like the ones I got) or new stem (not an option as the smaller diameter stem wasn't available).

..by the way, ever wondered why they are called handlebars? It's just one bar, so it should be the "handlebar". Yep, care factor zero right?

Anyway, there were a couple of other bits I needed to add as well, rim tape for the inside of the rims, and I forgot the stem spacers (but of course, I had to get these in gold too). Stem spacers form part of the stem/headset and I will basically use these to get the right angle up front... you will get it when I blog that bit later.

(Note that the shims won't actually be that visible unlike the gold spacers so don't worry, I haven't destroyed the awesome bling-ness of this build).

So anyway, here are a few pictures so you can see where I am up to thus far.

Firstly, bike frame on the work-stand (excuse the mess, in particularly my most fantastically crappy commuter behind it):

I started with the wheels, (and the dreaded rotors applied with the 12 star screws put on this planet just to piss me off). Here is the rear wheel with the rotor in place and cassette attached to the rear hub. The rear cassette has a nice little locking screw to hold it all in place. I had to really jiggle the cassette into place - first couple of tries there was some give that would have been noticeable while riding.

 

 

 So I did a little more in this build session, but this is about all I can be bothered blogging right now, so TS.

 

Progressive costs:

Actual: $3332.66
Estimated: $3407.39
If RRP: $5617.25

Until next time,

Justin. 

..And so it goes

Greetings those desperately addicted to my blog, and those who pretend they aren't....

Well people, coming to a close is the purchasing phase of this build. I will hold off on discussing costs because I am sure I will need to do emergency runs to the bike shop for little bits and pieces I forgot (two things I already know I need is a rear skewer to hold the back wheel on and some frame adhesive to protect the paint work from rubbing cables etc...).

But basically, here is where I am at:

Progressive costs:

Actual: $3300.03
Estimated: $3387.39
If RRP: $5577.54

Now to be fair, the "RRP" value is very conservative, I doubt anyone would pay this ESPECIALLY if this bike was sold as one complete unit. However, given the componentry, I would say brand new, it would be around the $4200 mark, so I think I did save money. So, for all you mountain bikers out there, I'd be interested to know your thoughts. Leave me a comment on what you think it would have been worth. Here is the build list:



And here is what a bike in bits looks like....

Keepin' it real,
Justin.

Do you like my Nob...

..by Nic's?

Nobby Nic's. A type of tyre. What were you thinking? Was your brain in the gutter. Again? Seriously, I need to finds me a more mature reader base?!

Yet another rather important part of the build. A set of tyres. Schwalbe Nobby Nic. Schwalbe seem to virtually own the tyre market for mountain biking, which is weird, because not so long ago they were really only known for their road tyres. I think some other manufacturer gave them some stick about making crappy mountain bike tyres not long ago. Because they have come out swinging. Hard. With a fantastically named line up of tyres such as the "Rocket Ron" the "Dirty Dan" or the "Hans Damf" it is a sin to look past them.

They have a tyre for every terrain, rider type, condition and wheel size. They will probably start making condom's soon. Imagine... "Hey babe, I'm feeling like a Dirty Dan tonight", "Oh no, please I want that Nobby Nic this evening"... and yeah, you know how the rest would go...

So here are the weapons of choice...

 

So what tyres does one choose on their bike? Oh my gosh. The options are endless and it all comes down to personal preference and the type of rider you are. Some prefer the "sticks like snot to a sock" grip, but others prefer the low rolling resistance of a less grippy tyre. Some even have different tyres for different rides (especially racing). Others look for weight, tubeless and so on. Some people cannot even find the perfect tyre so fit different types up front and down the back.

 

I tried a set of Hans Damps recently. Stuck fantastically, and gave me loads of warning when they were going to let go. However, after feeling great about a ride on them one morning, I saw my pace was like a hung-over snail. It was only recently I tried a Nobby Nic on the Giant and was quite happy with them. 2.3 inch width, a little more skewed towards grip but a lot less rolling resistance than the Hans Damf, I am quite happy with them and I think they will be a sweet spot option on the Heckler. I got them at a reduced price, but on the scale of tyres they are on the pointy end.

 

Progressive costs:

Actual: $3300.03
Estimated: $3387.39
If RRP: $5577.54

 

 

Heckle me oh so good,

Justin.