Bottom Bracket Shell Facing with the Cyclus Tool (video)

It's been a while since I posted something to this blog but I've started a new bike build. I'm restoring my old Tifosi CK Columbus frame. One of the great things about Tifosi bikes is the quality paint jobs they gave their frames. The downside to that is that the bottom bracket shell will need facing before I can fit a modern Campy bottom bracket.

Cyclus make an (almost) affordable tool that makes this job possible for the amateur. Unlike a lot of the more expensive options that combine shell facing and thread cutting the Cyclus Bottom Bracket Shell Facing Tool is just for facing.

I couldn't find an online video and the instructions were lacking in pictures so I decided to make a video of the process. See what you think.

The Winter Bike: Up Cane Creek Without a Paddle

As the late UK Summer suddenly turns into Autumn it is time to start thinking about the winter bike.

My winter bike is an old fixie that I had built by Deeside Cycles. The shop appears to still be in business under the name Graham Weigh cycles. My fixie was a Graham Weigh alloy track bike with a road fork and no decals, for that minimalist look. The idea was minimum maintenance, maximum visibility for commuting. I had it painted bright yellow. Ten years on and the frame is looking seriously the worse for wear and the mirage bottom bracket is shot to pieces. Time for an upgrade.

Riding fixed is much more fashionable now and so there's a bit more choice. You don't have to ride a track frame anymore. That said, I'm still surprised how little choice there is if you want to get more generous clearance for mud-guards. I actually had my Graham Weigh frame drilled for mud-guards originally but the clearance is never going to be very good on a pure track frame and I ditched them in favour of a rear splatter guard later.

The whole thing about a winter bike is trying to keep costs down so I couldn't resist going back to steel and the special offers on the Pompino from On-One (aka, Planet-X). I've seen a few of these around Cambridge and someone I used to work with commuted on his and seemed pretty happy with it. On-One will fit headsets for you but when you get an end-of-season discount on a frame it seems like a good excuse to add to the tool collection. The headset press from Cyclus seems like a perfectly good tool for a DIY-er and will pay for itself fairly quickly.

Sticking with the 'cheap and cheerful' theme I bought a Cane Creek S2 headset. As the inventor of the AHead design, what could possibly go wrong? The supplier will remain nameless (I didn't buy it from On-One themselves) at this point as I haven't given them a chance to comment on the problems I had!

Although lots of online stores offer the S2 for sale the S-type headsets don't seem to be documented on Cane Creek's website. It looks a bit like they've had a make-over as the legacy product area is a bit thin. Fortunately, the old site is accessible through archive.org. The S2 page contains a useful diagram of the headset and the manual is still available too.

See the full size image on archive.org.

It is lucky that these sources are still around because when the headset arrived it was just a collection of bits in a poly bag. No instructions or diagram to check the bits off against. It looked like everything was there, the supplier had even packed an extra compression ring for some reason.

When I fitted the cups to the frame I must confess I thought it was odd that the two cups where identical and that, as a result, the logo on the top cup would be upside down. Manufacturers are normally rather vain about this sort of thing. But, the design of the S2 includes a top cap that fits over the upper head-tube cup completely. So the upside down logo is obscured when the headset is assembled. Having the two cups the same would certainly reduce the chances of people installing the cups the wrong way round. That must be it. I installed them.

Except, the cups are not supposed to be the same. If I'd looked more closely at the diagram I would have seen that the lower cup is supposed to be a bit deeper than the upper cup so that it comes down over the rubber seal on the crown. I didn't notice this and proceeded to build the bike. When I came to pre-load the headset by tightening the top-cap I just couldn't get the bearings to load properly. Either it was stiff and noisy or it was too loose.

It was only then that I started poking around on the web and realised from a few image search results that the upper cup should not have a printed logo at all. I'd been shipped two lower cups. I'm not sure if the diagram on the old Cane Creek site is really to scale but a bit of image editing shows the problem area. The longer cup comes too close to the top cap. Sure enough, before the bearings are properly loaded the top cap was starting to rub on the cup. This was confirmed by tightening the top-cap until the headset felt stable and then turning the handle bars. The top cap was sticking to the cup, instead of turning with the steerer and the spacers which are pressed against it.

I've edited and exploded a detail from the diagram to show how it should be (on the left) and how it turned out (on the right).

A Stroke of Luck

The next day my son took delivery of a freewheel and in the packet were a couple of 0.3mm spacers. As luck would have it they were exactly the right size to fit on a 1 1/8" steerer. I guess a proper 1mm spacer would have done the trick too but I didn't have a spare and it was a Sunday, not a great day for buying such a specialist part.

I fitted the two spacers just below the top-cap so that they sit on top of the compression ring. They provide just enough extra stack-height on the bearings to keep the top-cap away from the cup. The whole thing now works perfectly.

I do intend to take this up with the supplier but the hassle of removing the cups to send them back would have just meant delays. Also, I don't yet have a proper tool to remove headset cups and I'm not sure what I could improvise with. I know, I could just take it to my LBS and admit defeat but half the fun of buying cheap stuff online is getting yourself into, and out of, scrapes like this.

Campagnolo Centaur: 1,000 mile review

During May I wrote up some of the tricky bits of my home-build Cinelli Saetta/Centaur 10-speed. You can review these posts in the May archive.

Since I originally put the bike together I've managed around 1,200 miles which is plenty of time to discover most of the issues with the Centaur groupset. Before this build I was using an ageing set of Shimano 105 9-speed kit. Comparisons across Shimano and Campagnolo can get emotional at the best of times and the developments over the last 10 years would make it a bit meaningless. But moving from 9-speed to 10-speed certainly requires a significant step forward in the precision required during the build.

The 'H' Screw

The Campagnolo instructions for the rear derailleur contain a section on adjusting the 'H' screw. Out of the box mine was a bit tight, the gap to the largest sprocket - 25T - was less than the required 7mm. Measuring and adjusting this is a bit tricky, I recommend cutting a 7mm piece of card similar to the one I used when determining the length of the chain.

If you don't get this one right then the chain will need to turn too tightly as it feeds from the upper jockey-wheel of the derailleur to the sprocket. The result is a noisy drivetrain.

Vertical Derailleur Alignment

Despite getting the 'H' screw right I was still having difficulty getting the drivetrain to run as smoothly as I would like. I suspected a problem with derailleur alignment but I rode the first 500 miles trying to find just the right combination of cable tension, 'B' and 'G' screw positions.

I finally realised the something needed to be done when I heard a strange ticking from the chain when I was in the smallest sprocket. After a bit of detective work I realised that this was the sound of the joining rivet striking the inner face of the derailleur hanger. It is a bit hard to visualise but I've done my best to take some pictures:

I've circled the special joining rivet in the two pictures which show that it protrudes enough to strike the hanger.

The first thing I did was adjust the 'B' screw on the assumption that the derailleur must be moving too far out when on the smallest sprocket but even the smallest change resulted in a poor change on to this sprocket.

I also wondered if I had really got this chain joined correctly. I was careful to measure the protrusion on the inner plate with a micrometer to ensure it was as close to the designated 0.1mm as I could get it. This results in a larger protrusion on the outer face of the chain. This is all according to the instructions - the following picture shows this protrusion:

The chain manual comes with the following warning, which makes it pretty clear that I shouldn't consider altering the chain:

The slight protrusion (X) (towards the external side of the chain) of the small pin (E) from the link (Fig. 17) is entirely normal and does not obstruct normal chain movement. NEVER try to eliminate this protrusion.

By a process of elimination the problem must lie with the alignment of the hanger itself. In my 9-speed 105 days I could get things running smoothly again with a simple running repair - aligning the cage by eye while being careful not to actually bend the cage itself. With the Centaur 10-speed this is no longer an option. It is very hard to spot when the cage is off by a small amount but it makes all the difference.

So I stumped up for a proper alignment tool from Park. This really is a good tool, easy to use and really solid feeling. Unlike the comically aligned derailleur on the Park Took help page mine was a bit out of true on the vertical and a bit twisted - this was a brand new frame with a separate hanger but I guess these things are easily damaged in transit or simply don't come straight in the first place.

Correcting these faults and readjusting the gears resulted in that smooth as silk feeling you'd expect from £500+ groupset.

Slipping Brifters

I did have just a couple of other niggles during my first 1000 miles with the Centaur groupset. At one point, during a bumpy descent, the cable tension on the rear derailleur seemed to go completely wrong. I ended up fiddling with the barrel adjuster on the road but I couldn't get it right again.

It took me ages to notice that what had happened was that the brifter had a slipped a tiny amount on the bar. The cables where taped firmly to the bar under the handlebar tape so the result was that the tension increased a little on the cable as a tiny gap had opened between the end of the cable cover and the cable stop in the base of the brifter (all unseen under the covers).

Sticky Cables

The final issue I've had seemed to be heat related. England had a particularly cool (and rainy) spring/summer but the hot weather has finally arrived now and this seems to have been responsible for a few problems with increased friction between the gear cables and the plastic cable guides on the frame. It may just have been the grease drying out too quickly or perhaps the heat softened the plastic a bit and allowed the cable to cut in a little. Either way, the problem was fixed by slackening off the cable and re-greasing.

Conclusion

The Centaur 10-speed groupset sounds smooth and the change is nice and crisp. The ability to multi-shift when changing to the larger sprockets is useful, especially after you've just changed up to the big ring. For me, the big selling point is the position and ease of operation. My short fingers can change up a sprocket (or maybe even two) using the Centaur's lever without difficulty even when on the drops. This is a big change for me and for the first few hundred miles I found myself bringing my hands up on to the covers out of habit, the Shimano system of pushing the whole brake lever was always too much of a stretch for me from the drops.

Although some people complain about the position of the button for dropping to the smaller cogs I can reach it from the drops without too much of a stretch. Of course, I did have the luxury of fitting them exactly to my preferences!

On the negative side, the brifters seem a little light and flimsy. Light is a good thing of course and I'm probably just out of date - my 105 levers felt more robust but they also weighed a lot more. On the few times I have had problems with the Centaur gear-change the levers and, in some cases, the shift button have gone very stiff and I felt like I've had to treat them carefully to prevent accidental and expensive damage.

More significantly, the 10-speed drivetrain is very particular about adjustment. The extra sprocket seems to come at the expense of significantly more tinkering time. Although this was a home build project the real fun comes from riding the bike. After 1,200 miles I really seem to have found the sweet spot but it's already time to start checking for chain wear. I'm a light rider riding 165mm cranks in a fairly flat part of the country so hopefully I'll be able to squeeze a few more miles out of the Centaur chain before I need to replace it.

The Build Part IV: It's a wrap!

This is the final post in what turned out to be a four-part series.  In the last part I got the chain fitted, all that remained was for me to check the position of the brifters and handle bars before taping up and make those last minute adjustments to the gears that are inevitably necessary.

I did have one little niggle with the front derailleur adjustment before I could close out the build.  When I first connected the cable to the front derailleur I had an issue with a bit of poor alignment in the lever body.  The outer body of the lever has a hole through which you feed the cable for the gears, this is supposed to line up with a hole on the inner body but mine were misaligned and the gear-cable end caught at the interface.  I pulled the cable tight from the other side and didn't notice until I came to adjust the front derailleur - it was clear something was wrong but it took some searching to identify this as the problem.

With the cables connected and adjusted and the rain stopping I took the bike for a quick spin around the block to check I was happy with the position of the levers and the tilt of the bar.  Sadly, with a strong wind blowing up the nearest gradient it was impossible to really get out of the saddle to get the feel for the position.  Also, the rain only stopped for about 20 minutes before the weather closed in so I did a few tweaks and then had to run inside before I got drenched.

Still, impatient to finish the job I turned to the last task: taping up the bars.  The wintry weather had given me plenty of time to read up on this task.  Here are my three main picks for a description of how to do this job...

Installing Handlebar Tape - Sheldon Brown

This one had to be top of my list because, on a Cinelli frame with a Cinelli bar it simply has to be Cinelli cork handlebar tape to finish the job. The author even describes himself as "Sheldon 'corker' Brown" here so he is clearly aiming the article at people like me. Sadly, the article is incomplete. It is possible to get a few glimpses of his approach though.

The key to a reliable taping job is tension. As you wind the tape onto the bars, you should hold it under constant tension, never letting it go slack. The amount of tension should be quite considerable, enough that you might actually worry about breaking the tape

and on the important issue of winding direction:

Generally, handlebar tape should be wound on starting at the ends of the bars and winding toward the middle....

...I generally start from the underside of the bar, with the tape feeding outwards. You can do it the other way too, but make sure you follow the same pattern on both sides.

Handlebar Tape Installation (drop bar) - ParkTool.com

In general, you can do a lot worse than following ParkTool's advice on most matters I find. Perhaps the most accurate advice on the internet...

Handlebar wrapping is a skill that takes practice and patience.

This bike build introduced to me to a lot of new tools and components but in most cases using the right tool, following the instructions and using the correct tension when tightening fasteners means that no particular skill was required. Sure, it took me much longer than an experienced bike mechanic but the results have been similar up to this point.

On the issue of winding direction ParkTool's blog is more definitive:

Looking from the rider's point of view (from the back of the bike) wrap each side the tape rotates inward from the top. In other words, wrap the right bar counter-clockwise and the left bar clockwise.

How To - Handlebar tape - Sprinta Della Casa

My final pick is the more quirky Sprinta Della Casa. This article goes into a little more detail. It's less emphatic about the correct winding direction:

I wrap from the inside, over the bar. If you do it the other way it's up to you, but I've found the "over" direction works well.

This is the opposite of Sheldon Brown's preference and ParkTool's recommendation which suggests to me that it probably doesn't matter that much. I like this article for the conversational style and the number of pictures.

In conclusion, the golden rules seem to be:

1. Clean hands
2. Tools within easy reach (so you don't have to let go)
3. Wind from the bar end towards the centre

My first attempt

Sadly, my first attempt was not very successful. It is a long time since I wrapped my bars and I'd never used the Cinelli tape before. I was worried about breaking it and didn't pull hard enough to get a snug fit. I was also using the Gel variant of the Cinelli tape which has two adhesive stripes rather than a single central strip. This reduced the traction on the bar during the job and meant that a couple of times, where I'd broken golden rule number 2, the tape started to unwind.

After the first half of the bar was done I had more tape left over than I expected - I could have increased the overlap, particularly around the tight parts of the bend. I did the second half of the bar better and when I finished the job the tape looked fine but I could have usefully gone back and re-wrapped that first bar with hindsight.

The result, after 500 miles the tape was already coming loose. After 750 miles I gave up and rewrapped. That gave me an opportunity to change the colour of the tape too (on reflection, the white looks better than the blue).

In summary, I'd add a fourth golden rule to the three above. If this is your first time with a particular type of tape:

• Buy two lots of tape, that way, if you mess up you have some spare tape to help you finish the job properly.

Shake Down

With the bar wrapped and a small break in the the weather a few days later I was able to finally take the bike for a shake down ride one evening. The only problem I had was a consequence of the problem I described with the gear cable on the left brifter (the cable that connects to the front derailleur). Clearly the last minute adjustments to fix the cable tension problem (see above) had screwed something up.

I was just starting to ascend one of our local climbs (or what passes for a climb in our area) but the Centaur's release button was jammed and wouldn't drop the chain onto the small ring. Fortunately it wasn't too steep and I could use the right-hand lever to get comfortable. I figured that, for the button to jam, there must be some unwanted tension in the system. I loosened the barrel adjuster as much as I could (by screwing it into the frame lug as far as it would go - being mindful not to put my fingers through the spokes of the front wheel). This seemed to do the trick and the button could then be pressed and the chain shifted down. Of course, at this point there wasn't enough tension in the cable to shift back up. After a bit of fiddling I found an adjustment point that seemed to work enough to get me home but the whole thing had to be redone from scratch. That is, I had to remove all the tension from the cable, remove it from the clamp on the derailleur, reset the barrel adjuster (by screwing it in) and then reattach and tension the cable as per the instructions.

What happened? I'm not 100% sure. It seems likely that the cable had become too loose (as these things don't usually get tighter by themselves) and that I had pushed the level too far beyond the third click at the previous up-shift (the lever itself also appeared to be jammed). Either way, the levers feel a little more fragile than then old 105s I'm used to - a result of their lighter weight I expect. They're also quite expensive so I was pleased to get through this glitch without the need for more expensive spare sparts.