First MM [Pedal] Bike Build: Shimano Fondriest

[Ginger]

Well, with a couple new riding partners, I've started to enjoy cycling again. I picked up a very lightly used Stumpjumper (non disc, thank you very much) in the late spring, and had a great time with it. We've hit all the local trails, conquered Shockabilly hill, and managed to meet at least once a week to train on the Reston Difficult Run loop. I'm not all that much of a technical rider, though, and my history is in road bikes.

... but my old road bike, a cobbled together Serotta Atlanta frame that's one size too big and on par with a boat anchor on the scale, isn't quite making the cut any more. It's heavy, the tubeset's too flexy for today's narrow-margin shifters, and not quite flashy enough for the road crowd.

So, I picked up a "late model" Fondriest MegaChrome frame off eBay for a song and decided to make a go of it. Late model's in quotations because everybody's doing monocoque carbon now... but it wasn't so long ago that you could *actually* buy a frame made out of something that had to be mined.

I'm trying to do it for reasonably cheap, so I'm using 9 cog Dura-Ace components since they can be had for, well, super cheap. I'll be building up it up with the most reasonably light weight and cost effective parts I can. That means a lot of chainlove.com, Craig's List, etc. On with the pictures:

The old Serotta:









Lot of hard miles on these pedals



Probably the nicest part on the whole bike:



... and on to the new stuff:



9 Cog Dura-Ace (lighter than the new 10 cog Ultegra!)



Prologo Choice Pro Ti Saddle (I may swap it out for a Selle Italia SLR that's 90 grams lighter)



Ultegra front braze on deraileur, Dura-Ace Rear



There's a 185 gram Easton EC90 Equipe Pro bend bar on the way, some fresh Vittoria tires, and I'll be getting a Thompson Masterpiece seatpost. I haven't picked a stem, wheelset, or fork yet.

[Evan]

... and on to the new stuff:

[Mike]

but he doesn't have red hai.... wait a minute!

[.RJ]

Haha!

Right behind you... just need to get off my ass and buy some parts

[Mike]

flat black... fucking poseurs. be sure to order some girl pants too!

[.RJ]

Satin black. Yes its trendy. No, i dont care what you think :lol:

[Ginger]

I painted the Serotta black eight years ago. And?

[Mike]

I painted the Serotta black eight years ago. And?

you're still going to look like ronald mcdonald.

[Ginger]

Now that the sun's down and it's raining, it's time to get started:

Step One - don't let your frame rust. Apply frame saver. Sure, it's $15 a can, but it'll save the cost of a new frame later and the hassle of hanging your running gear from it.



This is boring. I didn't take any pictures.

Step Two - pick out your bottom bracket:



I bought a stash of parts off a nice guy that built up fancy Italian bike, then crashed it. He said something about writing a fat check for a new bike instead of fixing the old one. Most of the componentry was still good, but incompatible with his new bike's 10 cog setup... his loss, my gain. I picked up everything that was still good, a few things that were marginally good, and a bad part or two, for a song. Among them - two italian threaded Dura-Ace bottom brackets with 109.5mm spindles for double front chainring setups. Perfect.

Except that Dura-Ace bottom brackets, unlike their heavier Ultegra cousins of the era, were not sealed and required adjustment.



Weight penalty worth the adjustment? Maybe... but then there's this:



Dura-Ace BB 1 - screwed up lockrings. Damn.



Dura-Ace BB 2 - screwed up cup threads. Damn two.

Into the spares bin they go. I can make one working part out of the two in a pinch, but it's not my first choice.

That's alright, though, saves me the trouble. I picked up an Ultegra bottom bracket on eBay that only has a couple hundred miles on it and a brand new left cup.



Pretty? Yeah, whatever, it's a part.



Hooray! No bearings in sight!

On it goes!

Pick out your favorite grease. I bought this shit at the bike shop for more money than I'm willing to admit. Sure makes me feel good inside, though.



Next, apply your grease to the bottom bracket threads.



Bottom brackets take some serious abuse... don't be afraid to put a liberal amount on.

Next, thread it into the frame with your special bottom bracket tool (that you probably paid too much for... I bought mine years ago, though, so I'm guilt free).



Next, the non-drive side cup.



Turn, turn, turn. If you're building a frame, take note of the bottom bracket shell width. If it's 68mm and English threaded, one side of the bottom bracket threads may be reversed. I don't remember which, do your research. 70mm, Italian thread shells are the standard righty tighty on both sides.



Torque it up:



Shimano lets you play with the torque specs a lot... like, a 20 newton meter spread. I'm a bit on the loose side... but I forget what I used already. Play nice with your wrenches - stripping the threads in your bottom bracket shell is not something you want to think about 'fixing.''

Sit down, look at your handy work.

[Ginger]

The next logical step is to install your cranks. Again, I got two sets of Dura-Ace from the gentleman that sold me the parts swathe. He told me that one set was bent.. I don't know how you manage to bend a crank arm (RJ, your input? ), but I decided to take his word on it and use the set he told me was good. They're 172.5mm in length, nice and middle of the road, and well used, but have plenty of miles left in them.

The chainrings and self-removing crank bolts need to be installed.



Orient your chainrings properly - I screwed up the first time. The anti-drop pin on the big ring faces outward and hangs out under the crank arm. The marked surface on the little ring faces away from the crank arm, and the little arrow mark, again, lines up with the crank arm.



Get your chainring bolts, making sure you're got the correct width, grease on, and go



Next, set your stack of washer/crank bolt/self extracting cap, grease up, and install. The crank bolt and washer drop in, with the extraction bolt threading into the crank.



Admire your finished product.



Self extracting crank bolts save time and a lot of potential trouble with nasty crank pullers.

Cranks go on the bike with, you guessed it, grease, and lots of it.



Slide on, work back and forth until the splines match up. This is a pain in the ass. Tighten using Shimano's liberal torque spec. Stand back and admire your handy work. Next, repeat for the other side.



More to follow...

... next post will probably be brakes, they're fast & easy.

[Ginger]

Oh, and I really appreciate Shimano for keeping install sheets readily available online:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://techdocs.shimano.com/media/techdocs/content/cycle/SI/Ultegra/FC6500/SI-16T0B_v1_m56577569830611829.pdf">http://techdocs.shimano.com/media/techd ... 611829.pdf</a><!-- m -->

[.RJ]

Where is the PBR?

[Maengelito]

... and on to the new stuff:

[.RJ]

Gold != Yerrow

[Ginger]

Well, a little more. New tires showed up today, they're nothing special, and mounting isn't exactly complicated, so no pics... but they prompted me to look at my wheels. I've noticed that the bearings seem loose, so I opened the front hub up and found this:



Both sides are like that. No sign of the missing ball bearing anywhere. A fried repacked them for me in high school and mentioned that there probably wasn't much life left in them... now I know why.

Oh well, on with it:



New grease



Pack it in good...



Put the axle in and the caps on... tighten up 'till you feel grinding in rotation, then back off just until it's gone. No pics of that, though, my gloves were really greasy.

[Ginger]

For anybody that's actually interested, some blingy new parts are on their way as I type this. A special pair of handlebars will arrive in a BrownBoxTruck tomorrow, and a very cool fork will come Saturday. I'll lift the curtains as they arrive.

For the moment, I'll probably be reusing the wheels from my Serotta, even though they're very near the end of their life... it never hurt to train on heavy wheels, anyway. However, I've come close to settling on some yellow Spinergy Xaeros for when I can afford them. At just over 1,500 grams for the pair, they're not terribly heavy, but to get lighter costs quite a bit more.

Big updates shortly

[.RJ]

1,500 grams for the pair

Oh ones!

[Ginger]

1500 grams = 3.30693393 pounds (google maths)

A bicycle's frame, fork, and wheelset are great areas to cut weight beause they weigh the most of all the components used. If you buy a heavy frame, as I did, you have to play the penny-pinching game elsewhere. If I get the bike down to 17-18 pounds, I'd be pretty happy.

[Ginger]

(the UCI weight limit is 15 pounds... to be close to that would be nice)

[Ginger]

Well, my Hutchinson Equinox tires showed up Tuesday, so I figured I'd put them on. What a dumb idea that was. I forgot how tight the beads on Hutchinsons can be, especially mated up to the WH-R535 wheels. The only way to get them on was to clamp the beads together to keep them from slipping:



While I was doing that, I noticed some scoring in the rim...

y

I don't remember it happening, I suppose it could have happened in a wreck or something, but I don't want to destroy the pads on my new brakes. A little time with spent sanding with some fine grit and everything in th world was right again.

The other thing with tight beads is that the tend to pinch inner tubes during installation. I mounted mounted the first tire and thought I learned my lesson - I guess I didn't. I was watching the second one, but it still blew during installation. Hopefully I won't flat on the trail - it'll be hell without my Vice grips.

Good finished production, though: