Changes to the Burley Tandem

This is a follow-up to my blog on our Burley tandem that my bride and I ride Our Burley Tandem. I have made two changes for the better. First I switched from a Nitto mustache bar to a more conventional drop bar, the Nitto Noodle bar; called the Noodle bar because it has some extra small tweaks and bends to make it more user friendly. The switch went remarkably and has played out as a much more comfortable cockpit than before. This also resulted in an embarrassing but very positive discovery that I have had my Shimano 9 speed bar end shifters setup wrong for years. All this time I figured it was natural for the shifters to index the first 3 gears, then friction the next three and index the final 3. Well it turns out it only does this if you screw up when you install them. You can install the shifter levers in 4 possible configurations, but only one way is the right way. Once I read up on the right way to set them up, I actually had all 9 gears index! You have no idea what a difference this is. I usually have no problem with friction shifters, but trying shift smoothly when your not sure whether the next shift is friction or index is near impossible.

The next change was too replace the triple crankset with a compact double; the reason can be summed up in one word, "chainsuck" (I don't know is that two words?). The original "Cyclone" crankset (not Suntour), was a middle of the line crank, similar to a Shimano Tiagra or Sora, with a Shimano 105 derailleur. The problem seemed to be the middle chain ring. When we would get occasional chainsuck, it would sometimes deform the middle chainring, leading to more chainsuck. I would remove the middle chainring, pound it flat and re-install it; it would work for a while, but eventually chainsuck would rear it's ugly head, which has resulted in us falling over several times and sometimes having to limp through a ride with no workable middle chain ring. My bride made it clear, "This is your thing, I don't care what you have to do; fix it!"

I had two thoughts. The first was a better crankset would fix the problem, but there are limited choices. My thought was if I could find a highly quality square taper crankset, then I wouldn't need it to be tandem specific. My other thought was to go with a compact crank and eliminate chainsuck entirely. FSA is the main player with tandem cranksets with their Gossamer aluminum ($205) and SLK carbon ($305) including FSA exterior bottom brackets. I also had the plan of buying a DuraAce triple and converting a Ultegra arm by heli-coiling reverse pedal threads. The DuraAce crank was an ebay item, that while I paid for it with "Buy-it-now" they were never delivered. I finally spotted this Sugino Alpina2-800D, compact 48/34. It was one of the nicest square taper compact cranks I have seen (second only to Sugino Mighty Tour) and my choice was made. The primary issue with the compact crank was losing the low, 30:30 gear. My solution was upping the cassette to a from a 11-30 to a 11-32, leaving me with a 34:32; almost the same gear ratio. We went for our first ride and it was magic. Before, every time I down shifted the front derailleur from the middle to granny gear, I would wince, hoping it would not chainsuck. Now, no worries! The gearing was spot on and no chance of chainsuck ever. More important, my bride was very happy.

The NJS Bike Part 3

This is going to be a short one. Just to add I picked up a Nitto seatpost, SP72. Probably one of the most beautiful seatposts ever made. Still a little expensive @ $120; fortunately I found one used and in very good shape @ 1/2 the price. I also had some fun making some Bottom Bracket tools to R&R a Tange Steel Levin Bottom Bracket with a Tange NJS Alloy Levin Bottom Bracket.

These are the headset tools I made. The top is a headset cup remover, which is nothing more than a piece of 3/4" copper pipe with 4, 4" slits cut along the sides. All you need to do is pull the ends out a little and it works the same as the Stainless version (you work it into the head tube and pound out the cup). All this for about $2. The second is a headset press. The copper pieces are some plumbing adapters that fit a 1" headset to a "T"; the price is about $6.00. Generally I don't like to install headsets and only install the cups if they are steel. The cup remover worked like a charm.

The press takes a little more finesse, but it does work as long as your very careful. Would I trust myself and these tools on a Chris King? Uh, no. Would I use this system on a Cane Creek S2, which had some of the lightest and fragile cups on the market? What do you think?

This was a steel frame with very tough alloy NJS headset and it went on without any problem; the NJS stamp appears in the stem and headset photo; it is probably the smallest NJS stamp I have ever seen, but it is visible when you click on the photo.

Done!

My 1999 Schwinn Peleton

In 1999 I bought a Schwinn Peleton. The bike is an 853 steel frame, very graceful S shaped stays, nice electric blue paint with “Schwinn” beautifully incorporated into a contrasting black on white down tube. The gruppo is almost all Shimano Ultegra except for the headset; this becomes an issue later in it’s life.

When I first bought the bike I was married to my ex-wife. The purchase of this bike was an unspoken sore spot in our relationship; added to the already mounting unspoken sore spots. Anyway, the beautiful paint started to chip off. I took it back to my LBS and they apparently had to go through 3 frames before they got a good one.

I then rode the bike for about 2 years until the single speed bug bit me and the bike sat for about 3 years. Then after I met my good friend Mike, I gave him the bike to see if his wife would become a bike spouse. Well that didn’t work and I got the bike back a couple months ago. No worse for wear, it had a Nitto stem and a new set of Conti Ultra Sports.

Now, since I parted with the Peleton my taste in geared bikes has matured. When I bought the bike I had the double crank changed to a triple. While the triple works the way it is supposed to, it is quite clunky needing two additional trim shifts to keep it quiet. Also after seeing the Nitto stem I decided it would look even better with a Nitto seat post and different seat.

First I decided to switch to a compact crank. I think it was the designers at Campagnolo that came up with the idea of a lowered gear crank. Instead of a 52-39 double or 52-42-30 triple, they came up with a 50-34. The 52 is only useful for 28 MPH plus, with a 50-34 you get most the gearing of a triple, without the chunkiness. The compact cranks also come in the new 2-piece with exterior bearings. I decided on the 105 level R600. Once I installed the crank, I found the triple derailleur worked, but not well. I scrounged up a double 9 speed 105 derailleur and after installing it I found that although Shimano says the triple derailleur works, I wouldn’t advise it. I also got two new tools in the process.

The OEM seatpost was a Titec and I changed the seat to a Specialized "Body Geometry" style. In 2008 this would not do. So, next I looked for a Nitto seatpost. The Peleton has a 27mm and I found that short of buying a double bolt NJS seatpost, the other Nitto posts only come in 27.2. Then as luck would have it I found a WEB Store, Peter Whit Cycles, that went to the trouble of ordering 50 Nitto Crystal seatposts so they could have them made on 27mm. SCORE! Now a seat. I first thought Selle Italia as I have the seat on most of my bikes. However, my wife is quite fond of the looks of Brooks saddles I have put on my last two projects. Certainly my wife will agree to fund most any seat, but if she actually likes the seat, well that’s uber cool. Anyway I found a black B-17 narrow that will do the trick.

The 1999 Peleton came with an aluminum fork. The popularity of aluminum forks was very short lived and although it looks nice, a carbon fork is certainly in order. Here I will have to admit I went uber cheap and bought a Nashbar Crabon fork, regularly $150.00, on sale for $80. When the fork came in I immedately pulled out the stem and removed the old fork. I tapped off the crown race and slipped it on the carbon fork; slipped it all the way down where it should have needed to be pressed on. The problem was obvious, the OEM fork is JIS. JIS is an older japanese standard that has been replaced with ISO, which is the now the industry  standard, but is still found on some inexpensive department store bikes. After I removed the head tube cups, I found that the head tube on the frame is ISO, which means the current headset is is half ISO and half JIS, so a JIS fork will work in an ISO head tube. I have seen these 50/50 headsets  for sale labeled a "30.2/27.0 headset." (30.2 for the ISO head tube cup ID; and 27.0 for the JIS crown race ID. If you then want to upgrade to an standard fork with an ISO, 26.4mm crown race, you can simply buy a compatible Tange ISO crown race (Tange sells them separately) or buy a new threaded ISO headset; I choose to do the latter. At this point I had a sudden realization of the obvious. I had wondered from the beginning why Schwinn has spec'd the cheaper Tange headset over an Ultegra headset that would have matched the spec on the rest of the bike. Well,  the reason suddenly became obvious; the Ultegra would not have worked with the JIS fork. So I picked one up and now the entire bike is finally Ultegra throughout.

Do the Math
Well the Carbon fork has too short. The original steerer was 170 mm (I thought 165). But there was a 7mm spacer so I figured I was set. Not. Turns out the Ultegra headset had a 4mm higher stack height then the OEM Tioga; do the math and I'm 7mm short. So the 160 is in the mail back to Nashbar and the 175mm has been ordered in it's place....
Its about a week later and as you can see it all worked out. I even threw on the short cage rear derailleur to finish it off.

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 NJS Plan Changes

I'm still waiting for the fork to come back from the painters; turns out the powder coater does not have a pearl white, so they will paint it a standard white and send it to a "wet" painter to for a coat of pearl clear. Then there is the topic of the crank. As I explained in an earlier post, I bought a beautiful NOS Suntour Superbe Pro. Unfortunately it was only the right side and in 165mm. 165mm is certainly the perfect size for a track crank, but it's also close to track specific. Now the Suntour cranks is also NJS, which means it connects to an ISO bottom Bracket Spindle. For those of you that don't know, the Industry standard for most square taper spindles in the US is JIS (the use of the JIS standard for spindles was driven by Shimano, which is confusing since they used the ISO standard for everything else). ISO is used by Campagnolo and some older European component makers; it is also the standard used for most track gruppos. The two standards are not in-compatible; ISO is a little smaller than JIS, meaning if you slide a JIS crank arm on a ISO spindle, the crank arm will stop about 4-5 mm farther then where an ISO crank arm would stop. If you have a worn crank, then you may run out of spindle. This is where the 165mm length comes into play. I figured I just pick-up a left Campy crank arm until I could find another Superbe. The problem is (as I said) 165mm is usually made for track, so the only left crank arms out there are 170's. I ended up with a Shimano 165mm crank arm. It was a beautiful Dura Ace, but it is JIS. The crank arm was new, so difference on the spindle was an acceptable 3-4 mm. I rode it this way for a few rides, but the fact that my bike had mis-matched standards weighed heavily on my mind.

Most of the parts I have accumulated for this project has been from Internet stores. One I pointed out earlier, was Rider Paradise. Unfortunately this site has dwindled to offering no parts at all. To take it's place I have been checking out njs-keirin.blogspot and njsframes.blogspot. Finally I found a Dura Ace crank on njs-keirin. $207 (+$25 shipping) for the crank, pedals and NJS straps. This was a great deal. The Dura Ace track cranks are NJS and really, really nice; certainly as nice as the Suntour cranks and I have both arms! The pedals are MKS Custom Nuevo(s).

Unfortunately I made a small mistake. I noticed the spindle of the right pedal was hanging up a little. Most likely it's a slight manufacturing defect. I took the pedal apart and took a Dremal bit to the exterior plastic seal; I could see a small polished portion on the spindle where the two were rubbing. The Dremal seemed to do the trick. I then noticed the same problem on the left side. This time I had a problem with the bolt that attached the spindle to the pedal. The pedals have two cartridge bearings pressed into the body and the spindle slides into the bearings. The spindle is held in place with a allen screw. With the right pedal, I needed to put the allen wrench in a vise and turn the spindle with a pedal wrench to loosen it. With the left pedal it seemed to be taking more torque than the left; then SNAP! Oh no. It turns out the screw was left hand threaded. The following day was a waste of about 8 hours trying to locate a replacement screw. I ended up with three options. 1) Throw the pedals away and buy some Soma Hellyer (RX-1 copies) for $70 (my original plan before I bought the used Custom Nuevo(s). 2) njs-keirin.blogspot has a set of beat up RX-1(s) for $35 (plus $25 shipping). The administrator of njs-keirin.blogspot has offered to sell me the pedals at a discount. 3) I found a Web store that will sell me a new set of axles (w/ right and left hand threaded allen screws) for $45. While the third is not the cheapest alternative, it should solve the original problem of the bent axles, plus replace the broken left handed screw.

The choice was determined by njs-keirin.blogspot as they offred to sell me the pedals for $5 plus the $25 shipping. . At this point I must admit that these pedals are not for the Keirin bike. As mentioned earlier, I have already bought a new pair of MKS Custom Royal Nuevo pedals for the NJS bike. The Royal Nuevo(s) are different as they have loose ball bearings; very cool. The used pedal will be for the green machine (my first fixed gear bike). The only real issue will be if the axles are compatible. Custom Nuevo(s) and RX-1 both have cartridge bearings and I'm guessing the spindles (bolts) and bearings are the same. The RX-1(s) have a more abbreviated cage than either the Custom Nuevo(s) and the pedals have different thread pattern for the cages. Best case scenario is the spindles will not only be compatible but in better shape. Regardless all I really expect is a left handed bolt that will work. I'll advise.

Well it worked. I got the pedals in short order and the left pedal had the left handed threaded screw I needed. The Custom Nuevo(s) are now functioning and I have installed them on the green machine. The RX-1 left pedal is a different story. It looks like it was in an accident and then used as a fishing weight for a while; and were talking ocean fishing here. The right pedal on the other hand was in good shape. The two obviously have different histories. While were on the subject of pedals, I bought a set of Christopher toeclips and straps (white) and I plan on using these on the track bike. The NJS bike has has become more of a concept bike. At first the idea of building a bike that could certified and ridden on a Keirin track sounded cool. However, as I have putting the bike together, I realized it would lose all personality and end up being one of the hundreds that are lined up in the basement of a Keirin track waiting to be ridden. I think I can understand why the Keirin racers treat their bikes with so much disdain. So here is the current line-up.

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/straps: Lapize
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: Soma
Brake caliper: Tektro
Brake lever: Soma

Still waiting for the fork, then ...

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)