Ephemerica

OK, I know that everyone reading this has been dying to know more about our bikes! We’ve been holding out a little bit, because I had a crazy plan and I wasn’t sure it was going to work out. But I can let a little bit slip now…my bike has made the transformation to its touring state. The biggest change was upgrading the drivetrain from 7-speed to 9-speed. This was largely because I figured that to build a bike for Cindy, I would need to use 9-speed (7-speed parts becoming increasingly rare), and I wanted us to be able to share pertinent spare parts. I didn’t want to replace EVERYTHING on my bike though (especially the cranks, they are way expensive). I did a little research and found this page on Sheldon Brown’s website that convinced me that I could get away with just changing the shifters, the rear cassette, and chain. I’ve always wondered about this—it seems like the deraileurs shouldn’t care how many speeds you have, since they are being controlled by the shifters anyway—so it was nice to get the confirmation from a bike shop pro. My bike is now happily motoring along with 9 cogs in the rear.

I also had to replace the wheels with a hub in the rear that was compatible with a 9-speed cassette (the stays were already spaced properly for wheel with a bigger cogset, so no frame bending was involved). Cindy and I had some wheels hand built by a local bike shop, Recycled Cycles. We pulled some LX/XT hubs out of the used bin, and had them throw on some 26-inch Mavic rims. All the guys we talked to in the shop raved about their wheels, and they feel pretty darn solid—hopefully solid enough to survive carrying all our gear on dirt roads.
I finally have received all the parts to build Cindy’s bike in the mail. Hopefully, I’ll get a few hours this weekend to put it together, and then I can post pictures/details on her bike. Oh yeah, I ordered a bunch of Ortlieb panniers from Wayne at The Touring Store…they should arrive next week.

Posted by Matthew on September 15th, 2006 | Filed under: Pre-trip Planning