Mark B
Zen MBB Master
Last night, I took a ride with my boss after work. I decided to take my old Silvio I out and do the first significant ride since I built it up. It will probably be the last, as well, because I believe I answered the questions I had in my mind. This is the bike that was discussed in this thread. I’m running the 155 mm RPM cranks that Doug and Jack discussed in this thread. The route was fairly flat with one decent, prolonged grade. There were some gradual uphills, but nothing steep. Distance was 24 miles over mostly smooth streets.
I started from my house and rode probably four miles to the meeting spot. I noticed on the way over there my brakes were a little spongy and knowing we were going down a steep hill that dead ends onto a busy street, I decided it would be a good thing to adjust them. I got to the meeting spot a few minutes ahead of my boss, so I took a couple seconds to adjust the brakes. We rolled off and I eased my way down the hill, always thinking about that front fork. Where we met was right behind Redlands Community Hospital, so I was thinking in the back of my mind if that fork gave out, it shouldn’t take too long to get me scooped up and hauled back up the hill! We turned on to San Timoteo Canyon road, the busy road I spoke of and rode just a few minutes before turning onto Beaumont Avenue. Beaumont Ave. is a pretty decent little grade and I took off spinning like crazy. The short cranks give you the illusion that you really have to wind it up to get going, but the speed reading out on the computer says otherwise. We wound our way around the back streets of Loma Linda, then rode past the hospital, through some of the parking lots and again I was reminded about how I wasn’t too far away should that fork give up. I got a couple laughs out of my boss as people, mostly kids, made comments about my bike. I joked that they were his fans and he said he’d never realized he had so many fans!
All in all, it was a fairly uneventful ride except that I realized I really, really like the Shimano bar end shifters mounted in this fashion. It’s not as clean looking as the Campy stuff, or even the Shimano brifters, but the cables are up and out of the way, the action is crisp, clean and precise. You can run from the small cog all the way to the big cog quickly and easily and the shifters are easily managed with only the thumb of either hand. The only thing that discombobulated me any at all was trying to find the gear combinations I liked. It seemed if I ran on the thirty tooth, I was all the way down on the small cogs and if I ran on the 50 tooth, I was all the way up on the bigger cogs. In other words, I found myself cross chained quite a bit. I’m pretty sure I could work all this out, given time on the bike. I like this setup enough that I am seriously considering piecing together the parts to build a drivetrain for my good Silvio. I’m thinking I will go with the double chainring short cranks and use a mega range (11-34) cassette in the back with a mtb rear derailleur handling the shifting chores. I will probably look for a road triple front derailleur that will handle the gear range in the back without rubbing. Wheels will be the biggest challenge $$ wise, but I may go for a set of the Vuelta wheels and give those a go. COOL! Another project!
So, this will probably be about all she wrote for Silvio I. She’s been good to me and is still my favorite, but I don’t think I can trust her. I know the fork has held up fine so far and logic tells me if it was going to fail, it probably would have failed over the tracks and bumps I rode last night. Truth is, it handles just fine and tracks just fine, but it will always be in the back of my mind. At least we got to share one last ride and this one was just fine.
Mark
I started from my house and rode probably four miles to the meeting spot. I noticed on the way over there my brakes were a little spongy and knowing we were going down a steep hill that dead ends onto a busy street, I decided it would be a good thing to adjust them. I got to the meeting spot a few minutes ahead of my boss, so I took a couple seconds to adjust the brakes. We rolled off and I eased my way down the hill, always thinking about that front fork. Where we met was right behind Redlands Community Hospital, so I was thinking in the back of my mind if that fork gave out, it shouldn’t take too long to get me scooped up and hauled back up the hill! We turned on to San Timoteo Canyon road, the busy road I spoke of and rode just a few minutes before turning onto Beaumont Avenue. Beaumont Ave. is a pretty decent little grade and I took off spinning like crazy. The short cranks give you the illusion that you really have to wind it up to get going, but the speed reading out on the computer says otherwise. We wound our way around the back streets of Loma Linda, then rode past the hospital, through some of the parking lots and again I was reminded about how I wasn’t too far away should that fork give up. I got a couple laughs out of my boss as people, mostly kids, made comments about my bike. I joked that they were his fans and he said he’d never realized he had so many fans!
All in all, it was a fairly uneventful ride except that I realized I really, really like the Shimano bar end shifters mounted in this fashion. It’s not as clean looking as the Campy stuff, or even the Shimano brifters, but the cables are up and out of the way, the action is crisp, clean and precise. You can run from the small cog all the way to the big cog quickly and easily and the shifters are easily managed with only the thumb of either hand. The only thing that discombobulated me any at all was trying to find the gear combinations I liked. It seemed if I ran on the thirty tooth, I was all the way down on the small cogs and if I ran on the 50 tooth, I was all the way up on the bigger cogs. In other words, I found myself cross chained quite a bit. I’m pretty sure I could work all this out, given time on the bike. I like this setup enough that I am seriously considering piecing together the parts to build a drivetrain for my good Silvio. I’m thinking I will go with the double chainring short cranks and use a mega range (11-34) cassette in the back with a mtb rear derailleur handling the shifting chores. I will probably look for a road triple front derailleur that will handle the gear range in the back without rubbing. Wheels will be the biggest challenge $$ wise, but I may go for a set of the Vuelta wheels and give those a go. COOL! Another project!
So, this will probably be about all she wrote for Silvio I. She’s been good to me and is still my favorite, but I don’t think I can trust her. I know the fork has held up fine so far and logic tells me if it was going to fail, it probably would have failed over the tracks and bumps I rode last night. Truth is, it handles just fine and tracks just fine, but it will always be in the back of my mind. At least we got to share one last ride and this one was just fine.
Mark
