Right then, let's speed this along a bit...
Cockpit:
Obviously THAT stem is staying, and my plan was to run a flat bar. That said, seeing as how a few contemporary bits would be going on this, I figured it would be a nice time to try something more modern. As mentioned elsewhere, a beloved local bike shop here recently closed, and for the last couple of weeks everything was 30- and 40-percent off. There was a stray Nitto-made
Simworks Getaround bar still floating around during that period, and I figured would be a nice addition to this bike. It's got a good amount of backsweep, at 12-degrees, a long flat middle section, and is wide without being too wide, at 700mm.
It was also $50!
Beer can shim!
Actually, an NA beer can shim!
Don't judge me, I actually really like them and it's a good pacing beer every three or so cans.
A couple of other Nitto bits would make it onto the final build, so seemed nice to have a bar made by them, too.
For headset, I raided the Chris King stash for an old No Logo 2Nut, which is where the problems began...
The steerer on the fork had been cut surprisingly short, so short there was no room for the 2Nut, never mind any spacers and cable hangers! So two solutions were needed; an alternative way of running the cantilever cable, and shorter stack headset.
Luckily a friend pointed out that perhaps someone had previous installed a CK Gripnit headset. For those that don't know, these require the steerer thread to be cut at exactly the right height, so he leant me a random Gripnut top to try out before I placed on order with Chris King for a matching silver one:
So that looked like problem solved.
An order was placed for the silver one, along with the nice little Nitto cable hanger shown earlier, which, rather than attach to the steerer, attaches to the stem post. This is actually really useful for this bike, as not only does the Gripnut not allow for one to go on the steerer, the paint on the stem only goes down so far on the post and the hanger would cover most of what was missing. This would help to give me the little extra height I needed to get the bars closer to where I would like them.
Side note: in theory you can run any Chris King as either a threaded or threadless headset. All you need to do is order the relevant $50 kit to switch over the top part:
Spotters badge to anyone who can tell me what rookie error I've made that I won't figure out until everything else is bolted on, cabled up and ready to ride?
For levers and shifters, I had some good scores at the San Diego Velodrome swap last year:
As you can see, that's where the stray Crossfire tire came from, as well as King bottle cages, the DA cassette with matching rear derailleur (just to have) and a set of modern Paul levers:
The rest will all be for future projects!
Levers would be paired with more Paul Touring Cantilevers:
I really love this brake, as you can tell by how it now shows up on all my bikes! A doddle to set-up, brilliant modulation (especially paired with the Hunter Nugz), excellent braking and aesthetically pleasing when paired with an old bike.
Cheap, too!
The brakes and levers would be joined by some Paul thumbie mounts, secured on eBay, that I paired with the matching DA-7700 barcon shifters. But for some reason I don't have any photos of any of that going on, so you'll just have to imagine it until the final reveal!
Oh and I replaced the chewed-up original roller with a brand new one, courtesy of a trip to the hardware store:
A high tech bargain!
Apparently this is exactly what Keith specced on his bike's back on the day. Which sounds pretty Bontrager to me!
