Bumblebee

The new bike is finally together. Unfortunately I haven't really ridden it yet as a stomach bug knocked me out just as our two months of drizzle came to an end. Any day now...

The yellow frame with black parts has become my signature, as well as my favorite of the frame colors. Where I associate the colors with friendly pollinators, A sees Pittsburgh sports teams (Go Steelers, Penguins, etc!) and MF sees the Boston Bruins. I think I'm missing a gene.

(This bike uses one of those new-fangled external bearing bottom brackets. I just don't like it, though it should suffice. I wouldn't put one on a road bike. Next time: ISIS or Octalink.)

New Bashguard

I once again cut down a Nashbar bashring to make it smaller and lighter. (The first one was last year.) I took pictures this time. The resulting part weighs 99g, and has a radius 0.15" smaller than the original.

First, cut down the radius. This is the only functional change, adding clearance for rocks.



Next, I drill out some excess metal to lighten the part. The finished hole size is big, 3/8", because small holes don't achieve much savings.




At the end I pared out some excess metal near the edge, using a ball mill at the end to provide a big inside radius to minimize the chance of cracking the aluminum after a big bash.

Wheelbuild, Concluded

I finally finished the wheels last night. Whew! I'm a perpetual beginner/intermediate at this because I go 2-3 years between builds. The bottom line is I'm happy with how they went together and I think they'll serve well, but I've not ridden them yet.

Below is a table of the wheel weights, in case anyone wants to borrow bits of the spec. Note that I strove first for strength and maintainability, using brass nips and mostly (5/8ths) the strongest spoke type. One could build a lighter wheel by giving up some of this longevity.

Bare wheels (no skewers, rotors, cassette): Front = 706g, Rear = 845g. Total 1551g. (This is the number to compare with factory-built wheelsets.)

Full wheels except tires & rim strip: Front = 899g (160mm rotor), Rear = 1319g (140mm rotor, XT cassette).

Rim tape is Stan's yellow tape, claimed 5g per wheel.