Drew, This bike is utterly perfect! Great choice in gearing, too. On Monday, February 20, 2023 at 3:03:56 PM UTC-8 Drew Saunders wrote:
> "This goes to eleven!" > After having to get a new rear wheel for my 1999 Red Rivendell, which came > with a spacer to use less than 11 speeds (I had a 9-speed cassette), I got > to thinking, then I got to budgeting, then I got to buying and today, since > I'm on call for work (I work in IT, and one week in 10 I have to be on call > should some important network device have issues off hours, so I don't go > on long bike rides on my on-call weekend), I decided to change my Riv from > 3x9 to 2x11. It now "goes to eleven!" just like Nigel Tufnel's amps! > > I ordered the silver bar-end shifters and pods and hoped that everyone was > correct in that these would shift 11 speeds with a traditional 9-speed rear > derailleur. I have an Ultegra "long cage" from about 15 years ago (?) that > has served me well, and still works fine. Spoiler alert: works fine! > > I had originally wanted to get the Rene Herse cranks, but they were > perpetually out of stock, then Soma had their big holiday sale, so I got > the New Albion 26-42-chainguard cranks and IRD BB for about 1/3 of the > price of the Rene Herse. > > I found a Campagnolo Croce D'Aune front derailleur on Ebay from the UK > which the previous owner had scrubbed so well it looked new. This FD is > probably from 1990 or so. > > I added a SRAM chain and 11-28 cassette, and I also picked up new Ritchey > pedals (my previous ones were quite worn out) and Newbaum's padded cotton > bar tape. > > I don't have a garage, so have to drag my stand out of storage and use the > micro back "yard" behind my apartment when I want to work on my bikes, so > it's a good thing that it's a warm and sunny February day. > > Before: > [image: 1-Before.jpg] > > Here she is, nearly naked! > [image: 4-Cleaned-up-wide.jpg] > > I bottomed out the barrel adjuster, backed out the low set screw, and got > the RD to shift the whole range pretty easily! Here's the 42-28, which > doesn't overly stress the chain, and makes no funky noises. > [image: 5-42-28-works!.jpg] > > Yes, the Riv stubby FD would probably work better, than the Campy, but how > pretty is this? > [image: 6-Campy-and-New-Albion.jpg] > > Let's just say my bar wrapping and twine finishing look good for "20/20" > vision: If you're 20 or more feet away and/or I'm going 20 or more mph! > (Oh, the padded Newbaum's need at least 10' of twine per side, so the teal > twine I ordered didn't work, but my wife will happily use it). I chose this > blue as it's closest to the blue for Colon Cancer awareness, plus I was > getting bored of black tape. When this bar tape starts getting gaps, I > think I'll get the padded cloth tape again, as it does seem very > comfortable. I can do a lot of work on my bike well enough, I just can't > wrap bars to save my life, and, yes I watched the Riv YouTube video 3 times > before starting! > [image: 7-All-Done.jpg] > > I took it around the neighborhood and the shifting is really smooth, and > absolutely silent! I'm sure it'll get noisy in time, but I didn't miss a > shift once. There's a tiny steep hill that I tested the 42x28 and 26x28 > (spinning away like an eggbeater, it's not that steep) and can confirm that > the gearing works as I like. > > I'm going to keep the Suntour triple FD, Sugino crank, and 9-speed > bar-ends for a future bike build, as those are getting hard to find. > > Now for some bike nerdery, and if you're not interested in gear charts and > so forth, just look at the pretty pictures! > I used to have 24-36-46, 11-23 9-speed (I like small hops), and tested out > how much I would miss the large gear by only using the 46x12 instead of the > 11 for the past 6 months or so. I didn't really miss it, so I knew a 42x11 > would be fine (essentially the same gear as a 46x12). I also wanted to not > shift my FD much, only when going up the steep hills, so I wanted a > "one-by" most of the time, except when I head up the Santa Cruz mountains. > I'm fine with only using 8 out of 11 cogs with the 26. The chain isn't too > slack in the 26x14, so that will suit me fine. I cut the new chain 1 link > pair longer than the previous one. > > If you want to compare my before and after gearing, see here: > http://www.gear-calculator.com/?GR=DERS&KB=24,36,46&RZ=11,12,13,14,15,17,19,21,23&UF=2150&TF=90&SL=3&UN=KMH&DV=teeth&GR2=DERS&KB2=26,42&RZ2=11,12,13,14,15,16,17,19,22,25,28&UF2=2150 > > SRAM, Shimano and Microshift have different 11-28 11-speeds. SRAM and > Microshift have 11-19 for the 8 highest cogs, but SRAM (which I chose) > finished with 22-25-28, Microshift finishes with 21-24-28. Shimano drops > the 16, and has 19-21-23-25-28. I think I got the jumps that most closely > match what I used to have. For my brief ride, it worked well. (I said the > post ended with serious gearing nerdery, didn't I?) > > Next weekend, I'm not on call, but it's expected to rain. I hope to get in > a ride on the new setup! > > Drew > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/5bd28bc4-7fe6-4c16-820d-a5469397c9d3n%40googlegroups.com.
