11/13
So there’s an ongoing debate at the bike shop as to whether or not I’m an idiot for putting Avid BB7 mechanical disc brakes on my current project, a Gunnar Ruffian singlespeed.
The primary person I’m arguing about this with cannot fathom why I would “skimp” on a part for a really nice bike. And I’m getting tired of that argument. I’m hoping that this posting will generate some debate and further comments.
My Bike-Building Background
For the past half-decade, I have seldom bought a complete off-the-shelf bike. In fact, it’s only happened twice. In the first case, I bought a 2007 Giant Bowery singlespeed. Over the course of it’s existence, I replaced the stock wheelset, seat, handlebars and fork. I then, later, parted it out and sold the components to fund a new commuter rig. I also purchased a Cervelo P2C to use as a time-trial and triathlon rig, and had planned for some serious upgrades. Those plans have been scaled back for a number of reasons.
So what about the bikes I’ve built? Only one, my road/criterium machine, was a case in which I spared no expense. The cyclocross rig I scaled back the plans on and “skimped” here and there. And the commuter bike, a Surly Cross-Check, even moreso.
The Current Project
So the Gunnar Ruffian. I’m planning on a hardtail 29′er. Rock Shox Reba 29′er fork. Chris King hubs and headset. Other than those items, it’ll be fairly pedestrian. This is a “fun” bike — something I’ll bomb around on at Theo Wirth, maybe race in the singlespeed category at a ‘cross race when I’m feeling saucy. It’s not intended to be a super-high-performance racing machine — just a bike to have fun on. I might take it out on a multi-day expedition at some point.
My Argument in Favor of Mechanical Disc Brakes
The first point of argument is simplicity — I want something that can be repaired trailside with easy-to-pack-and-carry parts. Carrying a bleed kit, extra hose, and extra fluid is not a realistic proposition. In the case of a mechanical, all I need to schlep around is a spare cable, which can be coiled up and weighs only a few grams.
The next point is inclement weather performance. In Minnesota, winter riding is a given. It’s going to happen, and it’s going to be ugly. The hydraulic fluid intended for mountain bike disc brakes gets sludgy and reduces responsiveness. This is not the case with a steel cable actuated brake.
Cost. The price differential between the two systems is significant and the mechanical system wins this argument hands-down.
Your Argument?
What’s your take? Hydraulic or mechanical? Why?
08/5
The author’s P2C, with non-stock Zipp 404 wheels and XLab SonicWing.
Based on two experiences surrounding this bike, I decided to purchase one via Cervélo’s shop employee-purchase program. The first experience was getting eyeballs and hands on the Dura-Ace equipped model in our shop. The second was the thorough review written by the crew at Bikesport Michigan. This is my take on the bike, written from the POV of a mechanic and a rider.
Unboxing & Assembly
This is important to bike mechanics, but it’s equally important to those riders that maintain their own gear. While that’s a smaller percentage of the population, it’s important to be aware of what you’re in for.
Unboxing the P2C was pretty much like unboxing any other high-end road bike. The bike inside is far less assembled than a lower-end (think $279-$600) hybrid or mountain bike, and is going to require some time to build.
Having watched our (former) service manager struggle through part of the P2C assembly, I can say that the one part that will slow you down is running the cable guides. In fact, getting the derailleur cables run was a process that required some serious McGyver tactics, and has sparked me to write a HOWTO guide, which I’ll be posting later today.
The only other issue was securing the bike in a workstand. Trek makes an adapter for its aero seatposts that allows you to clamp the bike into a standard workstand clamp. This is not an option on the P2C, due to the sheer size of the post. Whether or not Cervélo manufactures a solution for this is unknown to me, and I didn’t think to ask. I merely resorted to turning the workstand clamp horizontal, resting the top tube on it, and not closing the clamp, for fear of damaging the carbon.
The only other issue I encountered during the build process was the need to cut down the seatpost slightly. I Googled around and was able to find discussions on Cervélo’s forums regarding doing this to a P3C seatpost (the same post, as far as I know), and nothing was posted by Cervélo contradicting the advice. Thus, I approached the problem like I did with the carbon steerer tube on my Salsa — a dremel tool with a diamond blade, a facemask to prevent a short-term future of black mucus, and a bit of trepidation.
All in all, the build process was trivial, with the exception of the running of the shifter cables through the frame. I’m sure it would be a slight hit in frame weight, but I’d really like to see Cervélo add internal guides to future versions so that I, as a mechanic, don’t need to spend more than four hours struggling to accomplish what would be a two-second job on other non-internally routed bikes.
General Impressions
Once I had the P2C unboxed, out of the stand, with the basic parts on it, I stopped to admire the thing. Looking straight at the front of the bike, my first impression was, “Damn, this thing is skinny!”
And it is — look at the bike from the front, and it seems to disappear. This, I’m sure, is due in part to the shaping of the head tube and the narrowness of the Wolf CL TT fork. But front-on, wow. Even with a 1 1/8″ steerer tube in there, this bike gives the impression of being more skinny than an ancient steel frame with a 1″ steerer.
From the side on, you get an idea of where the stiffness of the bike comes from. While the sleek/narrow appearance continues around the top tube and back to where it meets the seat tube, following the down tube’s line to the bottom bracket cluster reveals a figurative blossoming of material. The bottom bracket, and chainstays, like on other Cervélos, can be described, politely mind you, as beefy. And yet, the bike doesn’t end up looking awkward or goofy — the parts of the bike are designed they way they need to be — a stiff lower half for power transmission, with careful attention to aerodynamics in the head tube, seat tube, and down tube — all the points where the bike meets wind. And even with these disparate parts, the P2C doesn’t look like a mad science project. It looks organic — evolved, even — like something born for speed. Huge, huge kudos should go to to Cervélo’s engineers for their work, as it brings art and functional together perfectly.
The Ride
I can sum this up in a word: wow.
It’s been a long time since I last owned an all-carbon bike. And I’m amazed at the combination of comfort and absolute, unyielding lateral stiffness of the bike. You turn the pedals, and she just goes. Road vibrations vanish into the frame and don’t make it to the rest of your body.
At speed, the frame tracks straight and true — let go of the bars and sit up, and you needn’t worry about drifting off your line. Not that you’ll be doing that in a tri, but that gives you a strong idea about the level of attention that went to the molding of the P2C’s frame.
As a whole, the Ultegra group performs capably. As time has gone one, Ultegra has gotten closer and closer to Dura-Ace in overall feel and responsiveness. Weight, of course, remains the key differentiation between the two groups. However, that weight difference is negligible, and it’s more cost effective to just lose a pound of fat off your body.
Some of the parts are fairly pedestrian, but for a sub-$3000 time trial bike, that’s to be expected. My only points of contention — the alloy stem (I would have selected a carbon model from FSA to improve ride comfort) and the choice to use a compact crankset — were both put to rest on the first ride. This is not a bike for sprinting or criteriums. It’s a bike for the long haul, and it manages both comfort and high-speed efficiency.
The wheels are what keeps the cost of the bike down — the included Shimano R-500 wheelset will get you through your events if you’re early in your racing hobby and can’t swing the money for a pair of aero wheels. For me, they’ll become a pair of “beater” wheels — something to slap on the P2C or my road bike in the spring for training rides.
Slapping a pair of clincher Zipp 404 wheels on the bike (pictured above) makes an already awesome ride even better. Crosswinds were a little more noticeable, due to the height of the 404 rims. Overall, the ride quality was not impacted negatively by the switch — it merely required a little more attention in a stiff crosswind.
Experience
A huge thanks has to go out to the staff that I worked with at Cervélo — Brett, Ronald and Emma — who were extremely patient, forthright, and quick to answer questions. I made a pest of myself, I’m sure, but I hope that they, and the rest of their team know how much I appreciate the level of customer service I received. And I’m just a shop mechanic who did an e.p. from them. I would be willing to bet that their customer support for Joe Average Customer would be as good, and possibly better.
Final Word
The best bang-for-the-buck in the time trial/triathlon space.
Pros: aerodynamics, ride comfort
Cons: compact crank may turn-off some riders
MSRP: $2500 (US).
07/31
The bike, she is finished. Well, mostly. I need to chop down the seatpost a bit so I can make it fit me properly. But other than that, yeah. It’s done. And I am very pleased by this.
I will be following this post in the near future with a full review, as well as a HOWTO article on moving cables through a carbon frame.
06/30
- Observed this weekend: a white Toyota Prius with a “carrying handle” spoiler (much like the WRX STi, circa 2005), ground effects, expensive rims, and red-orange flames down the side. The lesson learned here is: if you’re going to go dorky, go big. Also learned: I need a quick-draw holster for my camera (and to carry it at all times).
- Got a good ride in last night after the bike shop. On the outbound leg, I kept noticing that I was slowing down and feeling shitty. This of course called my form into question — and rightfully so, as I haven’t been riding much. Well, turns out it wasn’t that so much as it was the loss of pressure in the rear tire — I hit a small bump and got a nice pinch flat out of it. Replaced the tube and turned for home. The inbound route was headwind the whole way. Go figure.
- Had a nice time hanging out with Kate, Matt, Jenni, Wendy, Cindi, Wendy’s girl, and others, on Friday night. Matt and Kate both sang at karaoke. I refused to humiliate myself. (I couldn’t hit one note in twenty, even if you held a gun to my head.) Kate and I bailed on going out to the 90’s on Saturday night because we were both exhausted and not in the mood for crowds. One of these years, maybe.
- Have discovered some issues with the Fontosaurus payment gateway and e-commerce engine not liking each other very much, so I will probably be making the switch to Paypal (*gag*) for the immediate future.
- Finished reading Mirrored Heavens this morning before work. Pretty enjoyable — it has a very cyberpunk feel to it, but it makes Gibson’s characters look like a bunch of pussies. I’ve got a whole stack of new books sitting on my desk that I’ve been dying to get at…the hard part is going to be choosing what to read next.
06/13
So it’s only installed on the back brake right now, but last night I installed the combination of Nokon housing and TRP CR950 carbon cantilever arms on the cyclocross rig. This is an upgrade from Avid Shorty 6 arms with just cheap/generic Bontrager cable housing.
The change is amazing. I barely even have to brush the cross-top lever to get the rear brakes to engage, and they do so in a smooth, predictable way, and deliver enough power to stop the bike quickly.
I’m really going to have to remain cognizant of the fact that my Las Cruces is moto-wired (ie.: the brake levers are wired opposite of usual — left hand now controls the rear brake), or I’m going to eat dirt/pavement.
06/6
Seriously, this might be the most awesome movie I’ve ever seen. When I’m at the shop tonight, doing my usual shift, I’m buying one for the commuter bike, and one for the road bike. (Not that I don’t already have enough shit on the handlebars of the latter.)
05/27
A few things I noticed over the weekend:
1. Shimano really needs to make the Alfine parts group available for purchase in this country. I don’t want to have to buy an entire Civia just so I can tear the crankset off of it.
2. Bontrager Racelite Hardcase puncture-resistant tires? Aren’t.
On the same subject, I spent a good chunk of yesterday editing some video of the build — I chopped out all the sections where I was doing things like talking to people out-of-frame and so on. Then I sped it up drastically. I managed to cram an hour and 35 minutes of video into three minutes and 43 seconds. Not too shabby. I’m creating some intro, an explanation of what you’re seeing, and an outro. Maybe tonight it’ll be done? We’ll see.
05/23
Last night, as we were falling asleep, Kate admonished me for not updating here since last week. I retorted by rubbing my stubbly legs on her and then admitting that it had been awhile. So here’s what’s up:
Writing. Not much time for it these days. But I did have two cool ideas for books yesterday. The first is a non-fiction work, and the second is a sci-fi re-telling of a modern history story. Both would be a lot of fun to write.
Cycling. If I don’t have to work at the shop tomorrow, I’m going to get the Surly out for a shakedown cruise. Work the kinks out, so I can make with the commuting. Johnny Surprise and I are going to try to get out and hammer this weekend, too. Haven’t seen the dude in a dog’s age.
Fonts. Also stalled. Need to get re-focused on getting the e-commerce engine running, converting some of my old fonts to OpenType and getting them back online for sale. I can always use more money.
Social Life. Picking up a bit. Going to have Jenni and the Cashbox, and some other peeps over for poker night this coming Wednesday. Liz is back in town for, like, a week or something before she heads off to her medical residency in Buffalo, NY, so there’s some drinking, maybe some biking, and some Rock Band in the immediate future.
Moblog. I’m working on a version of this blog for the iPhone/iPod Touch — one that will fill the screen nicely so you don’t have to zoom around like mad to make things quasi-readable. I’ll probably release the Wordpress theme as a free download, too.
Videoblog. I’m working on the first videoblog, and it’s coming along. Hopefully finished this weekend. I need ideas from you guys for topics on upcoming blogs — what sorts of stuff do you want to see?
05/11
Warm-Up Phase:
“This Language” - Stateless
“Whispering Wind” - Moby
Work Phase:
“UNKLE Reconstruction” - Michael Giacchino & UNKLE
“Five Four” - The Gorillaz
“Weapons of Mass Distortion” - The Crystal Method
“Genetic Blueprint” - Fear Factory
“Somewhere I Belong” - Linkin Park
“One Man Army” - The Prodigy and Tom Morello
“Ladies and Gentlemen” - Saliva
“She Builds Quick Machines” - Velvet Revolver
Cool-Down Phase:
“Loui” - Ronald Jenkees
“Warning Shots” - Gunjan, Sleeping Wonder & Thievery Corporation
05/10
This will be my final “update” post before the actual building of the commuter bike, as the final part has been ordered: the wheels. Rather than giving Tom, our service manager, $50 and a case of beer to build them, I’m using QBP’s Wheel Builder service. Don’t get me wrong, Tom’s wheel building is nothing short of stellar, it’s just that I’m trying to keep costs down on the bike. (Nevermind my choice of hubs and derailleur.)
So the wheels? Shimano XT hubs, DT Swiss Competition spokes, and Salsa Delgado Cross rims.
As soon as they’re here, I’ll have everything I need to build the commuter rig. That will probably be the subject for my first videoblog post here.
Dan Bailey