The Nishiki conversion; it lives!

This is part 2 of the  The Nishiki Conversion

A more intelligent person probably would have kept the frame and thrown the rest away. I still think that would have been easier. There are also some badly rusted chrome parts that did not clean up well. Still I really like the old Dia Comp parts. As usual as the build took shape some of my plans changed.

I discussed the wheels earlier, which are the original Araya 27” hoops and one Shimano 333 hub (front). The rear is a Formula loose ball fixed/fixed hub. Further I bought a Surly 22T cog and lockring. I also replaced all the spokes; the front spokes were extras from another build and the rear spokes came (along with some extra long nipples).

Frame wise, I ended up stripping off the my rattle can copper paint, which was an awful looking color for the frame anyway. I entertained trying the rattle can approach again with a different color and then came to my senses and took the frame to the powder coater. Okay, $100 is a bit much for this project, but I won't have to deal with it again and it will look really nice. My first choice was a burnished brass, but gold metallics require a clear coat and that’s another $60. Turns out my son got his first choice, with a dark green metallic (my other green bike is an emerald green).

Second there were these pedals. I actually threw away these OEM pedals (twice!) before I took a wire wheel to them and knocked off all the rust. Mechanically they work as a well as new, but the rust really did a job on the chrome. I was left obsessing over a set of Kyokuto pedals. I have seen them in several incarnations. The first is the all steel version I was dealing with, which include a strap guide on the outer edge of the cage. I tried using theses guides but they did not put strap in a postion that seemed shoe friendly. There is also NJS style, which have an abreviated aluminum cages. The NJS style also have rivets that hold on the cage on the body, all the other versions use a tab on the body through a slit in the cage. There is an aluminum caged version with no flip tab and another that does. I checked eaby for a better set, but had trouble finding a pair for less than $50. Then lo and behold I finally managed to find the above pair for $16.50. These have an aluminum cage with a flip tap.

The Nishiki also has a Suntour Sakae steel chromed headset. While in better condition than the pedals, the chrome on top lockring took the brunt of the corrosion. The lockring is also made for a 21.1 stem? The stem steps down from 22.1. After a little investigation I discovered this the use of a 21.1 stem is common on BMX and crusier. If I wanted a replacement, I would best look for a Crusier style headset. In the mena time I bought a similar style JIS Bottom bracket that tuned out to be mismarked (this was before I realized the need for a 21.1 top lock ring. I was able to send that back, but I replaced it with a much cheaper BMX headset, where the top lockring fit, but was a might puny. I may just stay with what I have (it's not THAT bad). The bottom bracket was in questionable condition with the spindle races being pretty shot, but the cups were pretty smooth. The owner of one of the LBS(s) in town, is a friend who lets me rummage around through most his old parts bins. He used to charge me a nominal fee, now he just lets me have them gratis. The original spindle had threaded studs at the ends and was asymmetrical. I found a replacement spindle and the short side fit pretty close, but I was hoping for perfection.

The Maxy crank has a pressed on 52 tooth chain ring and is therefore flat on the mounting side. To get a perfect chain line, I needed a spindle a few millimeters smaller. I poked around in the LBS and after trying about 8 spindles, I finally found one that gave me a 1mm gap. The Bottom Bracket itself was Tange, but there was something I didn’t like how the bearings (or the bearing cage) fit into the cups. I had some Sakae cups that seemed to like the bearing cages much better so I used them.

The chain was just an NOS Parts bin 3/32 KMC. The handle bar was a chromed Champion drop bar (this bike originally had a much narrower aluminum bar; but I happened upon this bar as a replacement) that is OEM on Nishiki(s) along with the Dia Compe center pull (770) brake caliper and the classic Dia Compe lever with the "safety" bar. The 770 brakes are still available and a good compromise for those who want cantilevers but don't have the bosses. The OEM seat was shot and I temporarily replaced it from the old parts bin seat.

I really like the look of the Dia Compe brake hanger and release. Rust really hurt the aesthetics of these parts, but I managed to find similar replacements on Ebay. OEM Replacements. The difference may not seem like much, but in real life it was worth the $20 extra dollars. The original budget was estimated @ $100. The was pretty much dashed when it turned out both hubs need to be replaced; fortunately a friend supplied me with a front hub gratis. Also the original paint job was supposed to be rattle can. When that didn't work out the budget was blown out of the water when I deceided to powder coat the frame.

Rear hub- $ 40
spokes/nipples $ 20
cog and lockring $ 50
Powder coat $100
Brake hanger $20
Pedals $25

So we're looking @ $235.

Still not done. Nope. Since these photos were taken I have already added a grip to the handle bars and will soon add the new pedals. Also the old tires are trash. Fortunately 27" tires are dirt cheap. Finally I took the bike by an LBS that has helped me with some parts. After much appreciated praise, he had a question of criticism; where's the leather saddle? And of course he's right. A true hipster bike needs a leather (aka brooks/ ) saddle. For a while I have had my eye on a brooks B-17 Special; green w/copper rivets in mind. While you may see them for $80, they are back ordered. A search found the best one in stock for about $100. So;

Brooks seat- $100.00
Tires-$16

All the above items are on order. So I am probably looking at about $370 after tax and license. I will add more photos when it's together.


And here they are! As finished as it's likely to get.





My first ride on these tires show this bike to be a pig. That's right, at only 63 gear inches (52/22) it's like riding through the mud on smooth pavement. Of course, that doesn't really matter, it's all about the joy of riding it. OTOH the Brooks saddle is surprizingly comfortable. I didn't really expect much, so I am quite pleased.

It was a bike to die for

On 01.09.08 a young man by the name of Lucian Gregg crashed his fixie bike and died. The location of the crash was E.Cliff and Jessie, which is only about 80 yards from where I crashed my bike a year ago. The local rag ran a few articles about fixies. This was a response I considered. Prior to submitting a response, some fool sent a letter to the editor claiming the crash was the fault of the trucker, who probably passed the biker and turned right in front of him. All the evidence points to the probability that the truck driver was well ahead of the biker prior to the crash. A witness saw the truck's brake lights come on along with it's turn signal, giving the bicyclist more than enough time to stop. Unfortunately the biker seemed to not notice the actions of the truck until it was too late. Hear is my reply:

After reading your article on the “fixie fad”, I thought I might clarify a few points over looked by I.A.Stewart. I am a League of American Cyclist certified instructor. I'm an avid cyclist and bike mechanic for over 30 years; for last 7 years I have been riding a fixed gear bike. I also have commuted to work for the last 5 years on the same stretch of road where this accident happened and a year ago (before it was re-surfaced), I crashed breaking 5 ribs. Having a brake made no difference (I hit a newly formed pot hole); wearing a helmet probably saved my life.

In IA Stewart's article he says “Fixies originally developed for racing indoor velodromes". The truth is closer to Josh Long’s comment that fied gear bikes are, “what people have been riding for 150 years". The first bicycles did not have freewheels (the part of the hub that lets you coast), which have only been around for about 100 years. Riding a fixed gear gives one the same pleasure as driving a Model A down the street. It is the riding without brakes that came from the velodromes, and that’s truly where it belongs. To rely on skidding the rear tire for emergency stopping is the realm of the young and stupid (stupid meaning without life experience). A brake on the front wheel, allow the front tire to do about 80% of the stopping. Stopping with just a rear “brake” reduces your stopping ability by the same amount. When I was a kid, most bikes ridden by children my age, had coaster brakes. These brakes are most like stopping a brakeless fixie, as it relies on the chain, pedals and rear tire to stop, but has the added advantage of letting you coast. But as anyone who ever tried to stop a pedal brake knows, they also were very inefficient, as you could skid the rear tire with no effort at all; and when the tire is skidding it is not stopping. What happens in a skid is the tire material is ground off the tire and becomes little balls between the road and the tire. Add to that that a fixie road tire has half the tire patch (the part of the tire that is in contact with the road) and twice the rolling energy (caused by a larger wheel diameter) as your average Stin ray or BMX tire, and you are not going to stop very efficiently.

The bike had *Velocity rims, *Formula hubs and *Sugino cranks (* high end parts popular with fixie riders) but no brakes; it was a bike to die for. Today the bike community mourns the loss of another one of it’s own; his youth makes the loss even more painful. Make no mistake, that the lack of a brake caused this accident and most likely Lucian’s death. Much had already been said within the biking community about the foolishness of riding without brakes on a fixed gear bike, hopefully this will start a meaningful dialog that will prevent another loss of life.*


Brad

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 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!

The NJS Part 3; Threadless Steerers suck..

I have decided to go with a Soma Rush frame. The price is right ($375) and I can pick one up in San Francisco (road trip) and they come in Pearl. At first I thought of going with a Soma fork but two things turned me off. #1, they don't come in Pearl; Red, Black or Chrome. Okay maybe the Chrome would work, but I wanted Pearl. #2 they only come threadless. No matter what you choose, aesthetically a threadless fork on a road bike, especially a track bike looks like a compromise. A quill stem simply belongs on a track bike. The only reason for unthreaded forks on metal road bikes is money. Threaded steerers have to come in different sizes to match the head tube, threadless is one size fits all. But that does leave me in need of a threaded fork. Once again Paul @ Rocklobster is going to bail me out. Apparently, back some years, Kestral went from steel to carbon fiber forks. Paul bought up all there stock of Tange steel threaded forks. He going to give a great deal on one and after a trip to the powder coater, I figure it will cost me about 1/2 the cost Soma fork. As a matter of fact, for a few dollars more, Paul would have made me a fork, which I figured was overkill for the frame.

I also ordered a Soma seatpost and white seat. The result was an email saying they were out of the Ensho seat I ordered in white. They have a stripped down version called a Kamisori. I'm actually quite fond of stripped down saddles so I just changed my order. The stem is nothing to rave about but it looks nice, it has the Soma logo and if there is one NJS part that seems like overkill it's $160 for a stem.

Also I have received the first Vittoria CX tire. I also bought 2 on an ebay auction for $140 and bought a 3rd with a free tube of glue for 83$ from aspirevelotech.com. By the time you add in free shipping they aren't a bad deal. As I said before the CX's are very nice, compared to the CR's @ half the price, the CX's are 3 times better. You do get what you pay for.

More to come

NJS bike; What's going right; crankset (kinda)

When I was looking for a NJS crankset, I decided I did not want a Sugino; way too common. I was perusing ebay and found a Suntour Superbe Track Crank; but only the right side. It was NOS and absolutely beautiful, so I bought it. Why do I do these things. Had I waited I would have come up with a set, now I need to search (probably in vain) looking for the left arm. But in the mean time, I found a Dura Ace left arm, in 165mm (the same as the Suntour) That should work in the mean time. There was a problem with this plan however. The Dura Ace was JIS and the Suntour ISO. Now I knew this when I bought the Dura Ace, but it was only $25 and NOS.

When dealing with cranks and bottom brackets, usually there are problems. Since I was dealing with square taper, there are two standards, JIS and ISO. They are not incompatible, but they are different. JIS is the Shimano standard, except for track cranks. ISO is Italian and Track. These are generalities, but for the sake for this discussion it will work. The difference between the two tapers are the ISO is slightly smaller and shorter. Generally an JIS crank will mount about 4 mm farther on an ISO spindle (see http://www.sheldonbrown.com/bbtaper.html for more info).

I wanted to mount the crank on my fixed gear bike to see how it looked. I scrounged around and found a used bottom bracket with Shimnao NJS cups and bearings, and a Campagnolo ISO spindle. Track Spindles tend to be narrower than standard spindles, usually in the 107-108.5 range. This is meant to achieve a chainline of 42mm; this is compared to 46 mm of the standard road double. The Campagnolo spindle was stamped "68-SS-120". I am told this means the spindle is for a bike with a 68mm bottom bracket housing, a double chainring, with 120mm rear hub spacing.

The Spindle itself measured about 112mm. This would seem too long but it is asymmetrical. When installed in the proper fashion it would give you a 46 mm chainline, turn it around and the chain line was 42mm; nice! I put the whole thing together and it looked like this.

Since the Dura Ace arm was new, the difference on how far it mounted was only about 2mm. I also Dremel ('d) out the corners of the inside of the square taper so the crank could mount farther down the spline. Add that to the fact that the spindle was a little longer on the non-drive side and you have a perfect fit. If I someday do find a mate the Suntour right side I may go with an NJS spindle, but for now I'm quite happy with the result.

I've gotten the rear wheel back and it looks just as nice as before, but now it's 4 cross. I am also expecting the new Vittoria CX tires in the next 2 days' and Lickbike still hasn't credited my VISA (I think I'm done doing business with them). Next is the frame. I had toyed with the idea of getting a Keirin frame but all I would be doing is hanging my pretty new parts on a used banged up frame. Okay they are very nice, all lugged and custom made, but it wasn't made for me. It would just be one more Keirin track bike where I would have to compromise somewhere in the size and/or color. So I looked around and settled on a Soma; a 55cm in pearl white. I called American Cyclery (the Soma distributor in San Francisco) and they'll have one for me in 2 days. I told the wife and she wants a road trip to China Town (she's so good). The only custom part will be having the fork steerer cut and threaded; they come 1 inch threadless. I have a very nice Tange chromed steel headset I bought for just the occasion.

Brad

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