Assembly Update

While I was watching stage five of this year's edition of Tirreno-Adriatico I tinkered on the bike a little. Do people still tinker these days? Or does that sound amateurish? Too buffoonish? Instead they "engineer" or "fabricate". The Soma Smoothie is coming together nicely.

Two Wheels Good

A solid set of wheels are critical. It simply is a necessity they are well built with quality components, particularly the hubs. As a general rule the parts that do a lot of spinning around and around, hubs, should have the greatest of attention to performance and durability. The rims preferably light and strong. Some are stronger than others, some lighter than others. I put much research and consideration into these factors and came up with what I think is a great combination.

When I was a kid learning bicycle mechanics by trial and error I deconstructed a couple of wheels but building one up is a foreign endeavor. Because I have more time than money, and it's not so difficult a job that only a professional mechanic can perform, I took on the task of wheelbuilder. Equipped with a few very helpful resources including this webpage by Mike T., Sheldon Brown's wheelbuilding article and the instructional video "Mastering the Wheel" featuring UCI master mechanic Gerd Schraner, I easily assembled a set of beautiful wheels. Once completed the wheels only needed to be adjusted for tension and trued. I don't have a proper stand for this process but it can be done on the overturned frame of the bike. Having a go at it using the bike frame method I was able to balance the lateral movement but vertical truing proved to be beyond my ability. Adjusting for a round-shaped rim was difficult and frustrating so I took the wheels to the shop for a professional to complete the job.

The ever exciting and expressive Gerd Schraner.

Because I am a "soul rider" rather than a club racer I decided on a build that will provide agility yet still retain strength as well - 28h 2x on the front and 32h 3x on the rear. Radial spoking has become common on the front end of many bicycles because it allows for a light wheel, but the likelihood of the wheel becoming totally out of balance when a spoke breaks is enough for me to stick with a traditional 2x pattern. I chose Wheelsmith double-butted spokes, a great all-purpose spoke to which I am partial but there are other excellent options like DT Swiss Competition or Sapim CX Ray. Spoke choice is a personal preference from one person to the next. Choose wisely though. To determine the proper length of the spokes I used two calculators to be doubly certain; one is called Edd and the other is the DT Swiss Spokes Calculator. Both are available online. On the rear I recommend using brass nipples on the drive-side of the wheel for additional strength with all other nipples being alloy. This will add a minute amount to the overall weight of the bike so if you're a weight weenie you just might decide against brass. The other main components are Velocity Aerohead rims with Aerohead OC on the rear and White Industries hubs, H2 front and H3 rear. If you chose the Aerohead OC for your rear wheel remember that the position of the offset side of the rim is opposite the drive-side of the hub. The offset side of the rim should be on the small flange side of the rear hub. Of all the research I did about this rim I never read anything that explained this. I actually built the rear wheel twice because at first I thought the offset side of the rim was on the drive-side only to learn it goes the other way. Do not make the same mistake I did.

For the benefit of any wheel building newbies like myself here are a few prep pointers:

Depending on the manufacturer your rim may have little ringlets hiding inside, leftovers from the drilling of the holes on the outside of the rim.

To remove the ringlets shake and tilt the rim until the ringlet is over the hole then carefully hook the ringlet with the angled end of a spoke. Viola! It pops right out.

Lubricate the threads of the spoke so the nipple turns easily.

Lubricate the outside of the nipples also to reduce friction for easy turning. .

Use brass nipples (right) on the drive-side of the rear wheel, alloy (left) for all other spokes.

A piece of tape over the valve stem hole will help easily orient the wheel while you're lacing it.

I've forgone documenting the whole process of lacing the wheel. That is all well illustrated in many other source materials. But what I will say is the process is quite simple. Once you get started it all makes sense.

Late Substitution

Spring is on the horizon and I have emerged from blogger hibernation to document the final stages of the Soma Smoothie build. An important question lingered in my mind over the months since the Fall. That question is this, "Why put all of the time, energy, effort and money into assembling a fine collection of Campagnolo components and then include with that group a budget brand bottom bracket?" I've been trying to keep the costs down with extensive shopping, comparison and seizing the moment when the price is damn near unbeatable. Since I already had an inexpensive BB which came with the Record crank set I figured using it was a sensible way of cutting my expenses. It is but really why not just scrape up the cash to upgrade to a quality Campy BB, and shop around just like I had for other parts? The answer was clear. So here I have a shiny, new Chorus bottom bracket and am I ever pleased because of it. It's only fitting to compliment the rest of the Campy drive train with more Campy. Am I right? The thought of having a ride equipped with a lesser quality version of a crucial component and whatever surprises it may have in store is one that would bother me every time I'm on the bike. So this was both an aesthetic and practical decision. Now, my ideal choice would have been a Phil Wood with titanium spindle, but that just wasn't in the budget and realistically this is a perfectly acceptable compromise. A welcome compromise for that matter. The Chorus BB has the reputation of longevity which is comforting knowing as long as I care for it, it will spin and spin for years to come. As well, the design of the Chorus is the same as the top-of-the-line Record except for the carbon housing sleeve that allows the Record to be lighter. Since saving a few grams is not a priority I believe I've made a wise selection. Quite.

Prepped

Picked up the frame and fork from the LBS the other day. I dropped it off just to have the head tube and BB shell raced and faced, but immediately realized there was other work I needed them to do for me because I do not have the tools (or know-how for that matter) to do so. These tasks included reaming the seat tube, racing the fork crown, and installing the headset (and fork subsequently). After considering the time, effort and cost involved for me to apply frame saver I had the professionals do that as well. The assembly is coming along well so far. I've built the wheels and will have a forthcoming blog post on that process. I still need to true them though. A job I'm not looking forward to based on previous experiences with truing wheels. Little by little the Soma Smoothie is making its way to completion. I still have a few of odds and ends to secure - handlebar plugs, headset spacers and front derailleur clamp - that will hold up the assembly for a bit, but at the pace I'm going right now being short a few parts is only a minor bump in the road. The salmon pink color of the Chris King headset really pops out against the white frame. I like it. A lot.

The Gang's All Here

                   

With the recent purchase of a seat post, spokes and tyres, all major parts and components have been secured and the build is ready to begin. First up are the wheels. I've been resourcing a couple of reference materials to learn myself on the practice, or "art" as one master builder calls it, of wheel building. I will have a shop ream and face the head tube, face the bottom bracket shell, and press the headset. I'll then assemble the whole kit, have the steerer tube cut, and with some fine tuning it will be ready to roll. I figured the time to get to this point of the process would take 6 months or so. That was two years ago. Before putting even one mile on the bike a special relationship has already been established. I'll be damned if I give it a name though.

On Second Thought

Somewhere along the way when my decisions with the Soma Smoothie build took a turn toward a classic style one part just didn't belong any more. The carbon forks were keeping the bicycle from totally embracing the look of years gone by. What the Smoothie really needed to complete its vintage aesthetic was steel forks. The change will add many more grams to the overall weight but the difference will not concern me, I'm not racing in the Tour. I'm actually quite excited about this development and even more anxious now for the final result. Another mind changer had to do with the nature of the material of carbon parts. Odds may be in my favor that the forks will not break, but I still don't want to tempt fate considering the price I will have to pay in flesh alone in the event of carbon failure. Even if the forks were to merely crack, not breaking completely and sparing me from gruesome injury, they would still be compromised and need to be replaced. In comparison, steel provides piece of mind. Steel is resilient. Steel is reparable. Steel is real.

So what to do then with the Profile Design Silencer SL fork I already have? Craigslist. Don't want to end up with two forks for one bike so I gotta sell before I buy again. I listed the fork and a week came and went with no responses. I listed it again and the very next day I got an inquiry. Another day later it was sold. I took a minor hit in recouping my money, but that's par for the course in these cases. The buyer turned out to be a 16-year old guy who showed up at my door with a scale in hand. It's safe to say this kid was a complete bike geek, and I mean that with sincerity. The way he thought out loud about the carbon fork and it's addition to his bicycle in run-on sentences. His preoccupation with verifying the weight of the fork on his digital scale, never averting his eyes from the matter at hand while we talked. Our interaction was both fascinating and strange. If you've witnessed or encountered fanatics of Magic the Gathering, or comics, or Star Trek, and their enthusiasm for their love of these things you get the idea. Except for this young man it was bicycles. I was kinda proud to be contributing to his passion. This sort of zeal for beloved pastimes that is equally endearing, amusing, admirable and troubling is the reason why the Comic Book Guy is my favorite Simpsons character.

Within a matter of a few days of the Craigslist sale I had ordered and received a new Tange chromoly steel fork with lugged crown. Thank you Soma! This baby was intended to pair with my Smoothie frame, down to the sparkly pearl white paint. The sleek blades of the fork compliment the traditional tube sizes of the frame, whereas the fat blades of the carbon fork were disproportionate and it looked mismatched. The correlating color scheme is an important improvement as well. An interesting note in finding the fork on the Soma Fab website is it is not listed under the "Forks" section, but rather in the "Frames" section as an option with the pearl white Smoothie frame. I guess that makes sense being this particular fork was intended for a particular frame of a particular color, but then if I'm looking for a fork I would intuitively go to the forks section, not frames. I just so happened to be browsing the frames section and discovered the fork by dumb luck. Anyhow this whole situation played out how I had hoped it would and I am on track to finishing a sweet bike build. I'd like to continue this paragraph so that it extends to the bottom of the photo on the left because that's just how my mind works, but I'm out of thoughts on this subject.

Daddy Gets A New Pair Of Shoes

For about a month my Dell laptop was out of commission. I wouldn't say it crashed, but rather crashed and burned except it burned first then crashed. The motherboard overheated and one, or more, of its components fried causing the computer to freeze up. It took some trial and error troubleshooting to figure this out and so a couple of new sticks of RAM, a new recycled CPU and new recycled motherboard later the computer is up and running again. So on with the blog post.

If Darth Vader's Imperial stormtroopers had a cycling brigade these shoes would be standard issue. And that's about the nerdiest Star Wars reference you will ever hear from me. A little personal history first before I continue on about this Shimano R086 cycling shoe. The last pair of cycling shoes I owned were made by Cannondale. They were good quality and just comfortable enough. I bought them in 1988 or '89. Rather than having the velcro straps common to most shoes today these shoes were lace-ups. They were made of a full leather upper with a hard plastic sole and that is about the extent of their construction. When I say leather upper I mean that's all it was, leather. One layer of leather, no lining. Holes in the material allowed for air flow but there were really not enough of them. You see too many air holes would compromise the structure of the shoe. If you've worn cycling shoes and ridden a bicycle in them (and chances are that you have if you're bothering to read this blog) then you know that structure is important. You need to feel that the shoe is firmly holding your foot in place on the pedal. You can't have the foot moving around in the shoe during the act of pedaling. You can't have that feeling of the foot rolling off the outside edge of the shoe. These Cannondale shoes did not provide that level of confidence. The leather upper was tough enough to take numerous scuffs and scrapes, and it formed to my foot just fine, but it was too flimsy to hold my foot in place like I needed it to. Why did I buy these shoes in the first place? Two things: money and selection. There was one shop in my rural town that even sold cycling shoes, and of the handful of models they had on the shelf this was the pair I could afford. I had these shoes for 10 years, using them for about 5-6 of those years, until I rid myself of them. That was another 10 years ago. So about 20 years in advancement of cycling shoe technology has come to pass until now when I have purchased my second pair of cycling shoes...the Shimano R086.

I've ridden in these shoes twice now on my current steed, the KHS Montaña Comp which has been modified over the years from a 21-speed hard tail mountain bike into a single-speed urban commuter, and first impression is very good. They offer the necessary amount of support and structure expected in a shoe. The toe box has a generous patch of mesh material to allow for air flow into the shoe and keep the foot cool, yet the end of the toe has enough firmness to protect the little piggies. Three adjustment straps do their job well of fitting the shoe to the foot. The outer sole is made of plastic, hard enough to sufficiently transfer power from the foot to the pedal. I'm not sure a graphite or graphite composite sole is actually necessary in a cycling shoe unless you compete at one of the highest levels of the sport. The fit of the shoe and feel of the interior is very comfortable. For a moderately priced shoe for a recreational rider the Shimano R086 has so far proven to be a good value. And of course they look pretty damn cool with their black on white color scheme.