Bits and Pieces.
I did the easy bits today. First up were my water bottle cages. I had two cages to spare so on they go. Thankfully both are black to match.
Two black water bottle cages - and they match!
Both cages weigh in at 124g. The bolts are included in the 1800g frame weight. This is also a time to mount my pump. The pump bracket mounts underneath a water bottle cage. It’s an old pump and it can’t handle extremely high pressures but it’s been reliable. I like it’s valve release lever although I don’t care for it being two headed.
Always ride with a pump.
It comes in at a hefty 148 grams with the bracket and velcro strap. That may seem like a burden to carry but it’s an even bigger burden to walk your bike, especially when you’re wearing cleated shoes! CO2 cartridges seem like a good idea but they always felt limited to me. You can’t really control the pressure you get and you’re limited to the number of uses – once per cartridge. I think I’ll stick with my pump.
The water bottle bosses are kind of funky. Check this out.
The bosses are riveted - not threaded.
If the threads ever get stripped or damaged then the boss can probably be replaced more easily than trying to rethread the tube. However, there are two disadvantages that I can think. First, the cage may not sit flush with the tube. Space is limited in a small frame like mine and shifting the cage in toward the center of the main triangle of the frame could mean that the neighboring water bottles may interfere with each other. Second, the rivet may not be very strong. How well will this rivet hold the cage in after several hundreds or thousands of water bottle removals and insertions? How well can it take the strain of a jiggling water bottle on a bumpy road? A 1-litre water bottle will weigh 1kg plus the weight of the bottle. That’s about 2.2 pounds.
The neat thing about this bike is that it can hold three water bottles: one on the seat tube, one on the down tube facing into the main triangle, and one on the down tube facing the ground. With the frame in the stand, I can’t mount a third cage. Plus, I don’t have third matching black one. Gotta remember to add that to my shopping list. Depending how well the bottles fit, I may be able to carry between 2.5 and 3.0 litres of water!
Pedals are next. Dual sided SPD mountain/touring style pedals fit the bill here.
Dual sided SPD pedals are the basic standard for what defines a pedal.
They are cheap, plentiful, and functional. Shimano did a good thing when they introduced the recessed cleat. What a joy! No more “clomp-click” sounds with every foot step. Now you can walk normally and not waddle like a penguin. Being small also opens up the door to minimalist single sided designs that can weigh as little as 200g per set when using magnesium bodies and titanium spindles. I’ll take the cheaper and heftier version for this build. At 365g, they should be able to survive being thrown out of an airplane.
Finally, we come to the rear derailleur.
Shimano's Deore Rear Derailleur
You can’t go wrong with an old classic like this. The Deore family has been in Shimano’s line-up for over 20 years. It has been updated off and on for different speeds and appearance but it basically hasn’t changed much. The fancier and higher ranked Deore models such as XT and XTR just don’t speak to me the same way. I want to see a barrel adjuster at the end. The loop of cable that goes from the chain stay and loops around to the derailleur just looks right. I don’t want to see any strange pulleys or weird wrap arounds. Just give me a derailleur. That would be Shimano Deore.
I added 934 grams to the build today. That should bring my total weight up to 3594g, or almost 8 pounds. I didn’t weigh the final result on the Park scale but I’ll accept that number. Here’s how the build looks now.
Progress, no matter how little, is still progress.
There’s still plenty of work to be done. I’m not sure what I’ll focus on next. There’s still more easy bits and pieces to add like a front derailleur, seat post, stem, and handlbars. I really want to start building up the wheels next though. We’ll see.
