Building the Cinelli – Done !

Finally, finished the Cinelli build. A few issues required some last minute ordering and running around.

The front derailleur requires a clamp-on type. The clamp to braze on derailleur adapter that was shipped with the bike was giving me issues with tire clearance, as the clamp was rotated to the rear of the seat tube, a rather odd design. Notice the clamp in the picture below. When the clamp is rotated to properly orient the tab that the derailleur mounts to, the portion where the screw fixes the clamp together ends up only a few mm from the rear tire.

A few phone calls and I managed to source a 35mm Campagnolo adapter from LaBicicletta here in Toronto. I also picked up a Campagnolo Chain Security Device FD-SR103. It’s a brilliant design that allows you to adjust the front derailleur and chain catcher position independently. Unfortunately, it’s not compatible with a clamp-on derailleur (or in my case, a braze on derailleur fixed to a clamp). I’ll save it for the Cervelo re-build coming up.

Fizik Bar Gel. I have been using bar gel under my tape for 5 years now. I can’t live without it as I like the extra thickness it adds to the bar and the gooey comfort it provides. When I unwrapped the bar tape from the Cervelo to scavenge the Chorus shifters, the gel had essentially fused to the bar requiring me to cut/scrape it off. Luckily another trip to LaBicicletta saved me.

The rest of the build went smoothly. Cranks went on without a hitch. I did a deep cleaning of the shifters, pulling off the hoods and cleaning the copious amounts of greasy crud that accumulated inside them, thank you WD-40.

The only stupid thing I did was put a kink in the rear derailleur cable, right where the cable sits in the housing as it enters the derailleur. I ordered a 10 pack of replacement cables and will replace it as soon as they arrive, as downshifting is suffering as a result.

And there we have it, fini. Bottle cages are Elite Ciussi Inox, again scavenged from the Cervelo, as are the Look Keo 2 Max Carbon pedals. I have replacements on order. The Selle SMP Pro I pulled off my CycleOps trainer.

So how does it ride? Well, I did the inaugural 50 km shakedown this morning to the beach and back, a route that offers a little of everything road wise – some relatively smooth pavement but mostly rough as hell pothole filled Toronto roads and a few light climbs.

Here are my impressions. It’s one hell of a stiff bike at the bottom bracket. Right up there with peloton worthy carbon bikes. The front end is INCREDIBLY stiff, more so than the Cervelo R3. And despite clearance for 28mm tires, it’s no “Fondo” bike. It turns fast very instinctively as if controlled by Jedi mind power. A Crowbar crossed with a Ferarri. This is very much a fast group riding or race orientated machine.

It’s not a lightweight, but I never felt I was slogging my city bike up the hills. The all carbon front end probably contributes to the bikes light feeling and handling. The Sirocco wheels roll fast and are equally stiff, and those Conti Grand Prix Classic tires have made me re-think my “320 TPI, no less” tire snob attitude.

Aluminum frames have a horrid reputation for harshness. But, Aluminum tube sets and alloys have improved since Cannondales 1983 ST500. This is not a harsh riding bike, thanks to the triple butted aluminum tube set. There is definitely compliance in the frame, so I didn’t feel like every imperfection in the road was going straight to my ass and hands.

The big difference between the Cinelli and the carbon Cervelo (and the carbon Look I rode previously) is if you should hit (and around here it’s more like WHEN you hit) a nasty bit of pavement – like a deep crack or hole – THEN you feel the absence of Carbons magic damping quality.  I hit a few nasty holes today, and it was a swearing DOUBLE ouch. Ride Paris-Roubaix on this? No thanks. But for most road riding I’ll be doing, it will be just fine.

 

 

Building the Cinelli Part 2

Work on the new ride progresses at a snails pace. A business trip took me to a warmer climate temporarily only to arrive back home in what could only be described as absolutely shitty weather. And wrapping up taxes took up most of any free time I had on Saturday.

Nevertheless, some progress was made. Not a whole lot of technical documentation on the Columbus FEL fork, at least what I managed to find. Here is a photo of it all laid out prior to dry fitting.

Not shown is the Columbus compression steer tube insert. We’ll get to that bad boy in a moment….

Dry fit-up of the Columbus FEL fork ready for cutting. I follow the prescribed advice of cutting the fork slightly shy so that there is 2mm of clearance for the top cap in order to pre-load the bearings properly.
And here we are in the jig/guide ready for cutting. I keep a 32 TPI saw blade just for the sole purpose of cutting carbon steer tubes.

Helpful hit – soap and water is a great cutting lubricant for carbon. A little shot from the foaming dispenser borrowed from the kitchen works perfectly.
Relax and take a deep breath. Work slowly, keep even pressure against the saw guide. Relax you hand and rest your index finger parallel with the saw blade. Don’t think about ruining hundreds of dollars worth of carbon fork if you screw it up…..

Afterwards, take a fine tooth file and break the edge / deburr the cut. Some people use sandpaper, I’m more comfortable with a file.

Ok, reassemble the fork to check…wait a minute…..
Remember that expander?? ….yeah, well, it sits proud of the steer tube by exactly 2mm. Rather than re-cut the steer tube, I dug through my parts bin and found a 2mm spacer.

That did the trick.

Next up was mounting  the new Campagnolo Scirocco (sans decals) wheelset I picked up on Kijiji with the Continental Grand Prix “Classic” 25mm tires I picked up when I was in Texas earlier in the week. New 12-29 cassette picked up for the “cheap” on eBay.

And this is why the whole spring / fall / wet/ gravel bike project started in the first place….clearance. Thinking 28mm will be no issue whatsoever.
Once wheels are mounted it’s time to check the alignment of the rear hanger.

As expected, the hanger was out by an obscene amount. The Park tool rule of thumb / guide within 4mm as you move around the wheel at the various positions A through D. With a little patience you can usually get within less than half that.

Ok, making progress. Still far from rideable, but getting there. I love the look of those Grand Prix Classic tires. No telling how they ride, but they look bad ass.

Building the Cinelli Part 1

The day of days finally arrived as time and weather converged to allow me to FINALLY get started on putting together the Cinelli.

Remember in Meaning of Life where Headmaster John Cleese declares “You don’t have to go leaping straight for the clitoris like a bull at a gate. Give her a kiss, boy”

Yeah, well…first things first, prepping the frame.

I’ve never met a derailleur hanger that didn’t need its threads chasing. Particularly new ones.  10mm x 1 tap with a squirt of foaming cutting oil cleans out the threads – and look at the crap in there.

That’s better, now ready to align the hanger when I finish prepping. On to step two – seat post.

Peer down the hole, what do you see. Crud, oxidation and general nastiness. Just to be safe, I ran a micrometer inside the tube to make sure I had some material to play with. Good to go – time for the flex hone.

Masking the seat tube with some low-tack painters tape. This protects the paint should the flex hone spin out of control.

Always lubricate the flex hone (or any metal cutting tool). Although cooling the tool is not necessary this instance, it does help “float” out the cuttings and leaves a thin film of lubricant to prevent further oxidation.

 

That’s more like it. Crud and oxidation eliminated. The flex hone leaves a cross-hatched finish. A test fit of the post and it slides in Smooooothly…….

And now the water bottle bosses. A quick run of the M5 x 0.8 tap with a squirt of cutting fluid.

Again, always surprising what you get after running the tap through the threads.

Finally, install the bottom bracket cups. I’m running a Campagnolo Chorus Ultra-Torque 50-34 compact.

I always like to check the dimensions of the bottom bracket – particularly with Ultra-Torque, as the design requires a wave washer to take up any difference in the bottom bracket shell width. Specs call for 68mm -/+ 0.2mm, anything outside of that specification results in either the crank bearings moving around in the cups, or excessive tension on the wave washer and excessive drag on the bearings.

Looks ok – right on the edge. If I had a facing and tap tool for 1.370 x 24 TPI shells, I would probably shave a little off the shell – say 0.1mm – while also ensuring the shell faces are perfectly parallel. Alas, I spent the big bucks on a PF30 reamer and facing tool.

 De-greasing the cups with the appropriate Loctite formulation. I spray then give the threads a quick wipe with a clean paper towel then allow the excess to evaporate before applying Loctite 246 to the cups and installing them. Loctite 246 is a medium strength low viscosity thread locker I use on steel, aluminum and titanium frames as a little heat is sometimes necessary to remove the fastener. Not an issue on metal frames. Would not recommend 246 on carbon frames, rather go with 242. Unless you are cool hitting your carbon frame with a heat gun or torch…..

And there we have it. I will mention, those cups were DAMN tight to install. Clearly, the threads could have benefited from being chased out. I’ve always followed the early Campagnolo instructions of using Loctite and nominal torque to install the cups (opposed installing dry and torquing to 35 Nm) and have never had an issue.

So thus ends part 1. Getting a little bit closer to riding this…..

 

Arrivederci Rotor…..

I have been through so many iterations and permutations of bottom brackets and cranksets I have lost count…I think I may have finally solved my problems with Campagnolo and BBright. Finally.

Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you wanted in the first place, right ?

I could not live with the Rotor crankset. Well, more accurately, I could not live with the font shifting of the Rotor Rings. Absolutely horrible – months of dropped chains, constant adjustments, the awful noise of chain rubbing against the front derailleur and worse yet, the trepidation of approaching a climb not knowing if I was going to be able to shift to my small ring or be stuck at the bottom with greasy hands wrestling with my chain as my riding companions soldiered onwards and upwards.

Luckily for me, Campagnolo had a (albeit unofficially supported ) solution – the Over-Torque crankset. Why unofficially ? Good question, there is no reason IMHO….but Campagnolo says no.

But if Over-Torque supports BB386 (46mm x 86mm) there is no reason why the 79mm shell of BBright can’t be accommodated…perhaps they can’t be bothered by taking one spacer out of the bag ? (in their defence, the centre BB sleeve from a PF30 BB is not long enough to bridge the 79mm width of BBright – but it’s only necessary for EPS electronic groupset owners – what you could do is get a BB386 BB sleeve and trim it down 3.5mm on either end, but DON’T buy a BB386 BB instead of a PF30 BB, you won’t get the appropriate spacer(s) !)

A Press-Fit 30 (or PF30) bottom bracket is a 46mm ID shell by 68mm wide that houses a set of bearings in removable cups that accommodate a 30mm crankset spindle. It’s a completely symmetrical design whereby the centre of the shell to the outer faces of the drive and non-drive side are an equal 34mm. BBright is essentially a PF30 bottom bracket that is 11mm wider on the non-drive side (NDS) while maintaining the same 34mm centre to shell face dimensions of the drive side (DS)

So to adapt a Over-Torque crankset for Cervelo’s BBright, you simply use the Campagnolo PF30 bottom bracket and only one of the two included spacers – the spacer goes on the DS, and the adjustable lock-ring on the NDS. Presto.

Only I given my “experience” with my Cervelo and BBright, I wanted it (nearly) perfect, so here’s what I did:

First step after removing the Rotor Crankset and Chris King PF30 BB, I reamed the shell with the Park Tool #791 reamer to the exact dimensions of 45.94mm. While I don’t have the recommended Park HTR-1B tool and 750.2 Cone, a local machine shop made a bushing for the #791 reamer to fit my Cyclus tool (from the Czech Republic, very well made) as well as a custom cone basically identical to the #750.2 from Park.

Reaming the shell was dead-easy and left me with a nice clean carbon shell to press the new Campagnolo bottom bracket cups in. I did a test fit first before applying the Loctite 609 for the final press.

I used the Park #668 PF30/BB30 bushings on my Campagnolo UT-BB140 tool designed for the Campagnolo OS-Fit BB cups – works like a charm, and easier to use than my Park HHP-2.

My trusty dog Tullio watched over the whole proceedings in the garage. Actually, his name is Comet….Tullio would have been cool, though…..

After test fitting, I applied the Loctite 7649 Primer to the cups and inside the shell and allowed to dry, followed by a liberal application of Loctite 609 on the cups, then pressed in place. Unlike previous attempts NO nasty popping and creaking sounds ensued….they went in with sufficient resistance but smoothly.

I left the UT-BB140 in place after backing it off ever so slightly overnight before installing the Crankset. Although theoretically the cure time for the Loctite in in the range of ~ 30 minutes, I had other matters to attend to that evening, so I installed the crank the next day. In hindsight, I wish I had faced the shell as well, but not having invested in the Park #690-XL facer I took the chance the shell was as parallel as specs and factory QC tolerances allowed, alas..it was not the case, but close enough.

If you are interested in installing your own Over-Torque Crankset – be forewarned – you’ll need to invest in the special tool necessary for installing (and removing) it – the UT-FC220 and it’s companion part UT-FC130 in addition to a 24mm box end wrench, as well as1.5mm, 5mm and 8mm allen wrenches. Campagnolo’s official instructions are here. For Cervelo BBRight owners, use only one spacer (on the DS) and the adjustable spacer on the NDS.

There you have it. New chain and rear cassette installed as well for prudence sake (plus the old chain was coming up to around 8,000 km). Perfect front shifting restored, as good as if not better than my original Chorus Over-Torque compact. Note, you may find it near impossible to lock the adjustable spacer with the 1.5mm allen once it’s in place….the bottom bracket cup makes it very difficult. While mine hasn’t budged in ~ 1000 km, I plan on removing the NDS crankset arm and locking the ring down with some Loctite 242 on the treads at first opportunity or if necessary, whichever comes first.

First ride with the new Crankset….performed flawlessly. I have a nice 172.5mm 110 BCD Rotor 3D+ with 50/34 Rotor Rings and a Chris King PF30 BB if anyone is interested ? I can’t guarantee they will shift all that well, but I’ll make you a great deal…..

So long Ultra-Torque OS Fit, Long Live the King !

I’ve gotten many comments both off and on-line about my various postings dealing with adapting Campagnolo OS fit cups for Ultra-Torque cranksets and Cervelo’s  BBright bottom brackets, and I sincerely hope everyone has found it useful. However, after yet another case of “wandering cup”, I’ve given up on the Campagnolo adapters and gone native.

Sort of.

Late last year I snagged a deal on a Rotor 3D+ crankset from TotalCycling.com in Ireland. It’s been sitting on my shelf waiting for the opportune moment to install it. I’ve been hesitant to give up my Campagnolo Ultra-Torque compact and the phenomenal shifting of  X.P.S.S – while I don’t often drop into the small chain ring (a function of more of the local topography than fitness), when I do, it never misses a beat.

But my bike had been making funny sounds as of late. A close examination showed the drive side OS fit cup managed to work itself loose yet again by approximately 2mm outboard. Curses.

Knocking out the cups was a trivial matter. Cleaning out the residual loctite 609 less so. Nevertheless, after an hour of diligent scraping with a razor blade followed by a few quick passes with a scotch-brite 000 pad and acetone, I was left with a clean bottom bracket to install the new bottom bracket. Ta-da.

 

All cleaned up and ready to go.

For the new bottom bracket, I went high end – the Chris King PF30, steel bearings, in black. While King does not officially support using their PF30 in the BBright shell (the inner sleeve is not long enough to accommodate the 79mm shell width), there was no other reason why I could see that it would not work if I opted not to install the sleeve. Yes, the risk of crap entering the bearings increases, but I’m not planning to ride cyclo-cross.

Necessary bits – Park Press, King Adapter Bushings, Locite Primer and 609

The PF30 is amazingly well made piece of kit, as is everything else made by Chris King. Proprietary machined bushings are necessary to press the face of the bottom bracket so that the angular contact bearings are not damaged during install. I purchased mine from Ebay.

Installed !

 

Wrangling the Park HHP-2 is no trivial matter, particularly with the bearing cup dripping Loctite on the floor, but working carefully, the install went without a hitch. A few nasty popping sounds ensued…

Rotor 3D+ Installed

 

Installation of the Rotor 3D+ went pretty smoothly after I removed the 1mm spacer from the NDS because of excessive pre-load on the bottom bracket (I could barely turn it after torquing the nut to spec). I opted to use only the adjustable nut to set the pre-load and everything spun smoothly. I needed to drop the front derailleur by about 2mm to bring it to within the Campy spec of 1.5mm – 3mm off the chainring.

So, first impressions of the Rotor 3D+ ? It’s stiff as hell and about 50 grams lighter than the Chorus Carbon I was using. It does not shift as well, but not terribly either. Some fine tuning of the FD will be necessary.

My first 90km ride went without a hitch, the crank spins smoothly and the seal drag has noticeably decreased. Hopefully this will be the end of my problems with BBright.

 

Cervelo R3 to R3 Team Upgrade

Cervelo R3 to R3 Team Upgrade.

Cervelo R3 to R3 Team Upgrade

So has it really been a year since I blogged last….?

First off, I am hardly a weight weenier, but when the opportunity struck to pick up a matching (well, “complimentary”) Cervelo SL fork for cheap on ebay, and from a local (Toronto) seller, I seized upon the opportunity.

Why bother (rhetorically speaking), given I am not a weight weenie ? Perhaps I am in reality,

Well, since my decision to pick up a 2012 R3 (late model, all black), lots of changes in the Cervelo R line up. Gone is the R3 Team, the R5 VWD and hello R2. Yes, future proof cable management has arrived. Better paint schemes (ATMO) too…..but a -60 gram upgrade for 130 dollars plus shipping….why not. People spend more for less every day. Well, weight weenies do. And this is a last chance to seize upon a R3 Team now that they have been discontinued. 

Previous to the Cervelo I had been riding a Look 565 with much more aggressive geometry thanks to a shorter head-tube (155mm vs 172mm) and while I appreciated the more upright riding position of the Cervelo, my fitness and enthusiasm for a lower position was growing. I was going to drop my bar position by at least 10mm anyway, and given all the work it was going to take to remove and cut the fork, why not just see if I could obtain a second fork before I committed to cutting down the original….then I found one, an SL, in black/grey….locally…..hello and thank-you ebay.

For the uninitiated, there is a proper weight difference between the standard R3 fork and the SL that came standard on the R3 Team and R5 models. The SL is a much lighter model, thanks to the 33K carbon layup. The differences are apparent to the naked eye.

299 grams, 215mm tube length….

Hey chubby…395 grams, 230mm steer tube

Searching “Cervelo SL Fork Weight” on the interweb, I found that, according to others at least there is a  60 gram difference between the 30K standard fork and 33K SL. Turns out it’s even more, or at least in my case – a proper 96 grams !

The only stumbling block was my miscalculation in steer length and stack height of the headset . There was no way I could use the standard 15mm stack height of the FSA orbit headset cap, which prompted another purchase on ebay – a Cane Creek 110 top cap assembly, 27 USD, shipped to my door in 3 days.

The old 15mm top assembly, retaining ring and spacers, 39 grams for all the bits.

Cane Creek 110 top assembly. 6mm stack height. 14 grams all in.

So, quick math – 96 grams saved off the fork, an additional 25 grams in bits….121 grams total or slightly more than a quarter of a pound. For 157 dollars. Cha-ching !

Changing the fork was dead easy. Remove stem and brake, remove top cap, pop out bearings, clean, re-grease, and install the fork, cap and stem. Clean and re-install the brake, trim off a bit off the cable, mount wheel, set the pads, torque to spec, then start tightening up the pre-load prior to tightening the stem….what the hell ? Something is wrong here…..

Merde ! Aluminum insert and star-fangled nut pulling out of the steer tube !

Argh ! Luckily I had some epoxy in the tool box. So, scrape off the old glue, clean with acetone, then carefully re-set the aluminum insert with the mighty Park Tool TSN-1!

Once set (around 1 hour) I re-re-installed the fork and gingerly set the pre-load, torqued the stem down and test rode. Beautiful ! 

How low can you go ? This is as low as I dare….

The Cane Creek 110 is the cats ass….

Meaner and 121 grams leaner…..

It’s hard to believe by a casual glance it’s not the original stock fork. In many ways, I prefer this R3 “team” to the red & white graphics to the genuine factory R3 Team frameset of 2012. Are there other differences between my “team” and a real R3 Team ? I honestly don’t know. I do know that the bare frame with hanger was 980 grams (size 56). Yes, sub kilo, but nowhere as light as some of the weights I have heard bantered about for a R3 frameset…or does everyone ride a XS ?

So, my R3 “team” frame & fork – 1279 grams “real” weight. Can anyone with a official R3 team 2012 size 56 comment ? The only other reference point I have noted is somewhere in the region of 996 grams, size 56 frame with hanger and collar. My collar was 22 grams, which put that at 974 grams vs my 980 gram frame, apples to apples. So in reality and most probably, the only difference between a R3 and R3 Team is the SL fork.

Drawbacks ? Well, I haven’t given it a true shakedown yet. What I am pretty sure is there is an appreciable difference in front end stiffness. The old fork was much more rigid thanks to it’s heavier construction. Only a real ride with confirm my suspicion.

Will I honestly feel that 121 grams on the road (as I feel my love handles)….no. No way.

UT-BB140 for BB30 Hacking

I had a comment about using the BB140 for BB30 installs.

Here is a photo of the Campagnolo UT-BB140 tool using the Park #668 BB30 bushings installed. You need to remove the C-clip that holds the campagnolo OS Fit bushings and remove them, then slide on the Park bushings.

Maximum distance between the face of the bushings is 95mm. Theoretically, if there is enough space to thread the assembly through the bottom bracket, it should work.

 

 

Done !

2012 R3 Chorus 11 Build – 16,5 lbs all in. And ready to ride.

Freshly Pressed !

Finally, progress made. Goal is in sight.

My first attempt to press the BBright Campagnolo cups into the R3 frame ended in disaster. I ended up pressing the left hand side cup crooked with about 0.25 mm space between the shell of the bottom bracket and the cup flange. Not happy with the result, I knocked out the cup and attempted again, this time making it worse. I ended knocking both cups out, cleaning up the loctite and placing an order for the proper tool (Campagnolo UT-BB140) and a set of replacement cups.

Now here is something interesting worth mentioning. There appears to be at least 2 versions of the Campagnolo Ultra-Torque BBright adapters – Campagnolo part numbers IC12-UTR51 and IC12-UTR51E. The two versions vary significantly enough that it is worth mentioning.

IC12-UTR51 (L) 58 grams and IC12-UTR-51E (R) 67 grams

The UTR51E appear to be a later version judging from the “EPS COMPAT” markings on both the packaging and on the shells of the cups themselves. The UTR51E cups have a prominent o-ring around the leading edge of the cup, and extra material around the bore. This makes the UTR51E cups heavier by 9 grams.

Close up of the right hand side UTR51 (L) and UTR51E cups (R). Note the additional material on the inner diameter of the cup.

Left hand side UTR51E cup (L) and UTR51 cup (R). Same additional material is present as on the right side cups.

Obviously, the material is there for some good reason. If I had to wager I’d bet the re-design is to accommodate the EPS bottom bracket sleeve that prevents the internal wiring from tangling around the crank axel. I will say however, removing these cups is going to be a colossal PITA as the Park BBT-30.3 can’t be used as the extra material prevents the neck of the tool from being placed through the inner bore of the cup. Hopefully the VAR Tool used for extracting Campagnolo cups will fit.

Here’s a shot of the juices required as outlined by the technical documentation provided by Loctite.

Loctite ODC-Free Cleaner, 7649 Primer, 609 Retaining Fluid, Campagnolo OS Fit tool

Basic procedure: Degrease the cups and the bottom bracket shell with the cleaner, minding not to spray it over everything, wiping up the excess. Once dry, apply a few squirts of the primer to the cups and bottom bracket shell surface. Mind not to get the primer on the seals of the cups, as the acetone will discolour the seals. It’s also recommended to put a shop towel into the bottom bracket to prevent primer and/or degreaser from pooling in the shell. Be tidy.

After the initial squirts of primer are dry, apply a second, then following the directions for “housed components” -pg 29, apply a bead of the 609 to the leading edge of the cup and press in, following the procedure outlined by Campagnolo.

All done !

For the uninitiated – it requires a significant amount of torque to press in the cups. Nasty popping sounds will ensue. If you are careful and continue to twist the handle they will go in. Leave the tool in the cups for at least 30 minutes to allow the loctite to set-up. Some people say overnight. Loctite says 30 minutes minimum is fine at typical room temperatures.Full strength is reached in 24 hours, so it’s not recommended that you install the cranks and ride until after a full cure has been achieved.

The results. Nearly perfect. The Right hand cup still does not meet the shell perfectly. There is about a 1cm spot where the flange is 0.001″ out as measured by a feeler gauge. That’s 0.0254mm or about 1/4 the thickness of a sheet of 20 lb paper.

Or close enough for government work.