Araya Rims, Gold 16b to RC-540; No More Tubulars!

07/15/2010

Well obviously it has been too long since I posted on this blog. I have been doing all my postings on my political blog OSB Politico and just riding. I also see I picked up a couple more followers; welcome and thank you. Anyway it was time to clean up the Soma NJS bike The Soma Bike is Done . My original build used wheels built with Araya Gold Tubular rims; Keirin bikes only use tubular tires. I have never used tubular tires, but they were once very common, so I figured I could embrace the retro side of me, and add one more NJS component. Well it didn’t work out so well. I wasn’t about to spend the $270 @ for Soyo NJS tires (and those are the cheap ones), so I went with $80 Vittoria CX. This is where I went wrong. What I failed to notice was the NJS tires are 1 1/8 wide, that’s over 28.9 mm! Yikes. I bought the Vittoria’s at a standard 21mm and they were a mis-match. I did not really know it at the time so I tried gluing them anyway but the tire would not lie down against the outside edges of the rim surface no matter what I did. After three tries I just hung up the bike and moved on to other projects.

Well the time has come to fix this problem. I could look for some wider, ie Vittoria Pave EVO CG in 27 mm or the Continental Tempo in 1”, both about $100 @. They are pretty much on the opposite side of the spectrum with the Vittoria being a ride it till it wears out and the Conty a quick and sketchy race tire, but good on the track. I decided to do neither and punt.



I sold the rims and tubulars on ebay and bought some really cool Araya RC-540 rims. The RC-540 is considered a clincher version of the Araya Gold. They are really just a very nice race rim similar to the classic Mavic Open Pro. What sets them apart is the top surface of the rim was polished before it was anodized. It’s nowhere near the finish of a the un-anodized Araya Gold, but it is also more durable. They are also impossible to get outside of Japan, so I used an ebay importer and they were delivered straight away.

Here's the rear wheel hanging in the garage. I laced the rims with the longer spokes for practice; just waiting for the shorter spokes. I’ll admit I am not an experienced wheel maker. I’ve made maybe 7-8 wheels but I’m getting faster. I held the slimmest of hopes that the old spokes would work, but my doubts were realized. Since the clinchers rims are about 50% taller at the spoke, this made the spokes too long.

I fumbled around with a spoke calculator and finally came up with 289 for the front and 299 for the back. The fumbling was figuring the ERD, or Effective Rim Diameter. The spoke calculator asks for this measurement, which is the inside rim diameter plus the additional length the spoke would need to thread into an installed nipple. Since the nipple is up, inside the rim cavity, it's not always and easy measurement to take accurately. I finally came close using the rod end of a caliper, adding 3mm x2, or 606 mm (there are also web pages with ERD ratings for most rims, but it is recommended you measure it yourself; the rim database said the Araya RC-540 had an ERD of 606.3mm) . The Suzue hubs have 36 spoke holes, have a 67mm spoke hole diameter (circle) and the flange spacing is 74mm for the front and 67mm for the rear; again the front is 3 cross and the rear 4 cross. I used this simple spoke calculator and came up with 288.8 front and 299.6 rear; try it yourself. This calculator only works with same size flanges and doesn't take into account the dishing of a rear wheel with a freehub for a gear cluster. Spoke Calculators can get very involved such as this one from machinehead but this one from wheelpro will handle most wheel builds.

I had a second hope that the shorter 3 cross spokes might work with the rear 4 cross pattern, but no luck, they were 295mm and as I said I needed 289mm. The spoke size might be a little off, since the old spokes were 295 and 302 respectively; 7mm difference where my spoke calculator showed a 10mm difference. My LBS didn’t have the spokes I needed so I had to order them. I did notice the 302mm rear spokes were a little short (or just barely covered the spoke threads) when I removed the old rim, so if they had been a millimeter or two, it would have been more consistent with the spoke calculator; just to be sure I also ordered some spokes 287 and 298. Like I said, I am not a boy wonder wheel builder, but I figured I can return the spokes I don’t use.

07/19/2010

Okay I'm back. Why did I do that? Why did I round 288.8 up and 299.6 down? Well guess what? The 299 spokes were a little short. I don't know if most wheel makers want the spoke threads completely covered with the nipples, but I do. When I built up the rear 4x wheel, there was about .5 mm of threads showing. By simply rounding up I would have spokes the right length (300mm). So I bit the bullet and went out and bought the right length spokes. They say that the money you pay to make up for your mistakes wrenching bikes, is tuition. I am a bit perturbed about the info I found on some of the forums I checked trying to nail down the spoke size. There were several that recommended rounding down, or even going for a millimeter shorter if they don't have the size you need. Most spoke nipples have 3mm lead way once the spoke threads are covered. The only way would want to round smaller is if you don't mind the threads showing, or you are going to use 16mm nipples opposed to the standard 12mm. While I'm not a perfectionist, I do like to think what I do is done the right way. I did return the 287/ 298 spokes I ordered, but I still had to pay for shipping both ways. I also have a nice collection of spokes; 287mm, 295mm, 298mm and 302mm. Hopefully they'll come in handy some day.

And here they are! Suzue Pro Max NJS hubs with Araya RC-40 rims and DT Champion 15g spokes; 3 cross in the front and 4 cross in the back.


I chose the Specialized Pro Roubaix for two reasons, primarily they were the only non-committed road tires I had. So a better question is why I bought the tires to begin with. The reason is these are some of the sweetest tires on the market. The reason why, is the tires are made by Vittoria. The Roubiax-Pro is similar Rubio Pro and the Roubiax S-Works is similar to the Open Corsa Evo, both with a slightly lower thread count. Both designs are referred to as Open Tubular construction, meaning like tubulars they are hand made, have an inner latex tube with an outer casing; they are rated 700x23/25c, meaning the volume of a 25c and the tread of a 23c. I also like these tires because you can get then very cheap because the come stock on Specialized race bikes, and every one wants to switch them out for something else so I got them at half price on the take off table. I have actually not tried the Ruobiax Pro, But I have tried both the Roubiax S-Works and Vottoria Open Corsa Evo. I would not place them on the same level as a tubular, but they are a very comfortable tire. Hopefully the Roubiax will not disappoint.





The final build (so far) :
Frame: Soma Rush (55cm);
Fork: Threaded Tange steel;
Headset: Tange Levin (NJS);
Bottom Bracket: Hatta R9400 (NJS);
Crank: Shimano Dura Ace Track (NJS);
Pedals: MKS (NJS);
Toeclips: MKS aluminum (NJS);
Straps: Toshi (NJS);
Handlebars: Nitto B125 CroMo (NJS);
Stem: Nitto Pearl (NJS);
Rims: Araya RC540; Spokes/Nipples: DT 15g; Hubs: Suzue Pro Max (NJS)
Tires: Specialized Pro Roubiax;
Wheels: 3 cross front/ 4 cross rear;
Cog: 16T Shimano (NJS);
Seat post: Nitto Jaguar SP72 NJS;
Seat: Brooks B-17 Champion Sprinter
Brake caliper: Tektro;
Brake lever: Soma.

The Soma Bike is Done!

Frame: Soma Rush (55cm); Fork: Threaded Tange steel; Headset: Tange Levin engraved; Bottom Bracket: Shimano Dura Ace (NJS) cups/bearings, Campagnolo spindle; Crank: Shimano Track (NJS); Pedals: MKS (NJS); Toeclips: Soma; Straps: Toshi; Handlebars: Nitto (NJS); Stem: Nitto (NJS); Rims: Tubular Araya (NJS); Spokes/Nipples: DT 15g; Hubs: Suzue Pro Max (NJS)Tires: Vittoria CX; Wheels: 3 cross front/ 4 cross rear; Cogs:18T (Soma), 16T (Shimano)(NJS); Seat post: Soma; Seat: Brooks; Brake caliper: Tektro; Brake lever: Soma.

The bike is sleek, smooth and white. If using a NJS part made sense I used it, otherwise I went with Soma or Tange. I have a few more NJS parts but I perferred the bike this way. The saddle is a wonder. My best friend and riding buddy handed over this beautiful Brooks B17 Sprinter. For those of you that don't know, the Sprinter was the defacto saddle for track racers in the 50's. The saddle was introduced in the 1925 and was produced for 30 years. Brooks is now making a collectors version of the saddle with a Ti frame. It's a very cool saddle.

Is a bike really ever done? This post is over 4 months old and I'm still tweaking it. If you remember back @ http://onespeedbiker.blogspot.com/2007/11/njs-part-3-threadless-steerers-suck.html I said a $160 seatpost was over the top; and I still agree. However, what if you can get the $160 seatpost for say $60? and here it is! A Nitto SP72; considered by many the nicest seatpost ever made. Unless you are holding this seatpost in your hand, you can't imagine how nice it really is. The minor marks you see is the result of the seat post being inserted into a seat tube a couple of times. I bought it used from Japan for $67.20 shipped.

The Nishiki Conversion

It’s a common idea, convert an old Nishki to a fixie. My 9 YO found this old bike on the side of the road with a sign that said, “Take me, I just need a little TLC”. Well the bike obviously needed much more than that. Still, it had a steel frame and I’m always up for a new project; especially if it’s has something to do with my son. But this bike was on the edge. The rule of thumb is the worse the bike, the more money to bring it back; this bike just about killed me. The wheels were shot; first I figured I could just R and R with new spokes. A good plan because even though I have been wrenching for about 20 years I have not built a wheel; the curse of having a really good wheel man. I figured I’d end up with a classic suicide fixie hub.

Unfortunately both hubs had cracks around the spoke holes. I ordered a fixed/fixed Formula hub for about $40 and a friend turned me on to a similar front wheel with the same Shimano 333 hub. The rims were the old aluminum Araya type. New they have a mirror polish, but even aluminum polish couldn't bring these back; so I opted for a stain finish via a wire wheel. I already had the spokes for one wheel and by the time I ordered spokes for the other and figured out the spokes for both wheels were a couple millimeters too short, I ended up buying some 16mm nipples, but still rebuilt both wheels 3-4 times. . I can now claim the ability to build an acceptable wheel.

Next came the drive train. Like all old Sakae cranks, the big chain ring is pressed on and the inside is bolted to the big ring. If one is to have a clean looking drive train you’re stuck with a 52T chainring. The bottom bracket (Sugino) was not in too bad a shape. The spindle was shoot, but fortunately the old spindles are pretty easy to come by. I replaced a few ball bearings on the drive side and it was ready to go. While I was dealing with bearings I also rebuilt the headset. Both the bearing cages were pretty much dissolved. Even though Sheldon Brown says they are not necessary, a quick trip to a small time LBS fixed me up with some replacements.
Now the frame. I gave my son the choice of color; almost. He gets up to three picks and can veto 2. His first choice was green, but I have a green bike already so we ended up with copper. I worked for 15 years in a paint shop so I have my standards. Still I figured I could do a rattle can job that would look nice. I bought some Rustoleum paint and soon found out the limitations. Turns out Rustoleum paint is not compatible with any paint containing acetone; and of course I used a primer with acetone. The paint wrinkled up in a number of spots, but they sanded out okay and I put on a couple coats of clear. Unfortunately I missed one spot with the copper behind the seat tube and when I tried painting over the clear, it was a disaster.

The handlebars have one of the strangest bends I have ever seen. Still, I'm sure a flop and chop will work just fine. The brake levers look pretty beat up, but they are aluminum and should still clean up pretty good. At first I considered the pedals are shot so bad that they would never look right again short of painting them. However after more work with a wire brush and cleaning/ repacking the bearings I have decided they are good enough to use.

Of course there was a lot of Dremal work with a wire wheel on other parts as well. Most the of the chrome was shot but the aluminum shined up pretty good.

Talking about bad chrome, Dia Compe has a very cool old school brake hangers and releases on this bike. Unfortunately, much of it is chromed, which leaves many of these remaining hangers badly rusted. I cleaned them the best as I could and this was the result. The front hanger and rear release tab needed to be painted silver. They may not look too bad to you but they end up being the focal point of the bike because they look so bad; then I found these on ebay. Granted they are a slightly different design, but the chrome is still intact and they still have a the old style release. At this point there are some decisions to be made and possibly a few more upgrades. The high point here are the wheels; I laced and trued the wheels myself. First time. Cool.

For Part 2 go to  The Nishiki Conversion; it Lives!

NJS bike; What's gone wrong; wheels and tires

Well it's been a couple of months since the NJS bike project started and not all has gone well. First let's talk wheels. As mentioned before I bought Araya Tubular rim 16B NJS 36H rims. To be NJS approved you must use tubular or sew-up or glue-on tires. The advantages are they are lighter, you can run at higher pressures and they have a very smooth ride. The down side is you have to glue them on. Also they are very difficult to repair and very expensive. Your typical NJS tubular runs about $100 as do most other brands of similar quality. The hubs I chose were Suzue Deluxe Pro Max. 36 hole. To be NJS approved a hub must use loose balls (no cartridge bearings) and be 36 spoke. That was pretty much all I knew at the time. I was also under the impression that the spokes should be straight 15 gauge and need to cross 3 times (and of course everything had to be NJS certified).

Well since then, I learned more. First the spokes can be only Hoshi or Ashahi (they are not stamped) and only 304mm or 305mm lengths for the rear can be NJS spokes certified. I have seen some supposed NJS wheels with butted or the infamous Hoshi bladed spokes. The Hoshi's are the only bladed spokes that can be used with standard hubs. The end has an S bend that allows you to insert them into the spoke hole in the hub. Unfortunately they are prone to break and I doubt they are NJS certified. OTOH it looks like butted spokes, I'm thinking 14-15-14 are allowed. Second the front wheel is three cross and the rear wheel is 4 cross. The spoke brand and lengths didn't bother me since Japanese spokes are impossible to get and are no better and probably inferior to the DT spokes used on my wheels. The rear 4 cross however was problematic. My bike builder would have had no problem lacing the rear wheel 4 cross and it is a detail like this that would have set the bike off for me; this would have to be changed (it was about a $50 mistake).

Next there were the tires. The tires I chose were Vittoria Corsa CR. The CR model go for about $50 @. They are a cheaper version of the CX which run about $80 @ (the CX are considered the industry standard). So the CR's are not top of the line but a good tire none the less. I also bought the tires from Lickbike.com for $40@. My experience with Lickbike has always been good. There store is based on the concept of quality over quantity. They pick the component or accessory they consider to be the best value over most the others and sell it for about 20% less than you'll kind it @ most other places. So I bought 3 CR tires, one for each wheel and a spare.

About a month later I see that the base tape is pulling away from the sidewall. I call Lickbike and they offer to send me replacements for the two that failed. I was not very happy with Lickbike wanting me to keep the third tire from an order of three, after the first 2 proved to be defective.

One issue with the tires is I used Tufo tape to mount them. Tufo tape is a 2 sided tape that is used instead of glue. The tape is cleaner and goes on faster than tape. The down side is, what was very difficult to repair, becomes impossible with the tape. The extreme tape has been know to tear the base tape off the tire (I used the standard). None the less, Lickbike requested I use the standard tubular glue with the replacement tires. Here I decided to kill two birds with one stone. After I pulled the defective tubulars off, I sent the rear wheel back to my tire guy to get it re-laced (4 X).

I then mounted the third of the original tire from the original order on the front wheel with the glue. I was not surprised when the base tape started to separate almost immediately. As I mentioned before, I returned the first two (after spending 2 hours pulling the Tofu tape off) and they replaced them. But after the third failed, I just didn't feel like wasting my time with what appears to be a hit and miss process, until I come up with 3 good CR model tires. They charged me for the replacement tires anyway, saying I would receive a credit when they received the return. It's been over a week and I have yet to see it (I even sent them back Priority). Lickbike sells the Vittoria CX's also for a good price ($70), so I boxed up the replacements with the third tire. I sent these Priority also and have requested a credit toward three of the CX's; since I've already paid for 5 CR tires, I'm almost there anyway.

At this point it a waiting game, Lickbike hasn't sent me the new tires and my bike builder is stilling working on the rear wheel. Knowing him he just waiting until he was the time, he can probably make them in less then 2 hours.

Well flash forward a week and Lickbike is out of the CX's of course. They have received all the returned tires and still haven't credited me; what's with that? They have lost my business for now and I have bought two CX's on ebay for the same price. I also see that riderparadise.com is selling CX's, $95 @ pair plus $10 shipping. A great price, but I don't trust them anymore. Turns out they gave me a "Neutral" rating after they failed to deliver on my order and gave them a Neutral. I guess thet fact that I paid immedatley for the product and waited 3 weeks without the product shipping only rated what I rated them. Plus I've noticed that riderparadise, has gone from a major Shimano/Nitto NJS store to almost no product and if you check their ebay rating them seem to loose every 10th order. Too bad, they had good prices and returned most my emails.

Brad

The NJS bike..it starts

Yes, I decided to go for it. More than the Hipster draw, which is very strong by the way, it's the Retro-grouch part me that wants one. Most, if not all the bike will come from the internet/ebay. First we start @ Rider Paradise an ebay case store in Japan; I will be getting most the parts from here.

NEW NITTO PEARL Stem 25.4mm clamp 100mm NJS TRACK
NITTO TRACK BAR B125 Steel 25.4 clamp 400mm NJS B-125

The choices here were based on use; I'm actually going to ride this thing, probably do a Century on it. Very few folks can maintain the classic kerin drop for very long. The Nitto 123 bar drops 180mm and the 58deg stem gonna take it down another 2 inches. The Nitto 125 bar combined with the Pearl 71 deg stem is going to raise the bar 5 inches!! Oh yah.

Now, how about some wheels. First I got one of the best wheel men in the business. Combine that with Japan's traditional cheap spokes and nipples; this is one place I'm not going all NJS
World Class Cycles

Suzue deluxe pro max high flange 36 loose ball bearings no lockring 36 NJS

Traditional high flange loose ball hubs. I've got a set of the Campy loose ball hubs on my fixie and they are tits; but they require some attention. I'm going to be using a lot of Shimano Dura Ace track parts so I decided to go with the Suzues. The company closed it's doors in 2006 but they had a lot of stock. That stock is just now starting to dry up with these 36h Pro Max and the price is up to $275 a pair most places (one place has then @ $199).

NEW ARAYA Tubular rim 16B Gold NJS 36H 335g Keirin

Again from Rider Paradise. Here I had to make the jump to tubulars. I consdiered some Araya clicnchers I found on ebay; they were the old 20A hard anodized variety, but the history of bike racing was made on tubulars, and this was to be a retro-bike, so I decided to go for it. However this is where the NJS stamp stopped. DT Swiss spokes and nipples. These are them; very shiny indeed.

Viittoria Corsa tires, the best made.

Pedals, we are going to need pedals and clips; back to Rider Paradise

NEW MKS ROYAL NUEVO NJS TRACK pedals
NEW MKS Alpha Sport toe straps NJS keirin track Black

MKS toe clips are as good as I have ever seen (of course I had to buy them somewhere else but that's beside the point), but $45 for straps! Damn. Okay, they run about the same as Campy, but the Campy's aren't made any more. The Ale's are only $14 for christ sakes.

Now how about a crank. Checked ebay and found a NOS Suntour Suberbe 165mm Track NJS Crank; but just the right crank. It was so beautiful that I bought it. Now I need a left crank arm. This may be a year long quest, but most 165mm left cranks should work. There is the issue of ISO vs JIS. Most track components are ISO and most Japanese/American parts are JIS. The difference in the square taper is minimal, especially if it's new. I find NOS Dura Ace 165mm left arm for $24. When it arrived it I found it sat about 2 mm deeper on an ISO square taper axle than the Suntour crank; it should work fine.

Now how am I going to pay for all this stuff. Well, the Suzue hubs went on the credit card, but most the other parts are Paypal. I have dug through a lot of my parts bin and have been auctioning them off on ebay. So far the other stuff net cost has been about $100.

Just sold a bunch of stuff so it's time to go Rider Paradise again.

Currently I am riding with a 48:18 gear ratio. I expect that once I play around on the track I am going to want to increase the ratio but I still want to ride on the street. The Dura Ace Track cogs are pretty cheap @ $15@, but they only go up to 16T. I decided to start with a 46 tooth CR and 16T cog; I can drop down to 13T or anywhere in between later.


NEW SHIMANO Dura Ace TRACK CHAIN RING FC-7710 46T 1/8"
NEW SHIMANO DURA ACE TRACK COG SS-7600 16T 1/8" NJS

FTF (further to Follow)