Closing in on the thrill January 31, 2010

The one part of this project that offered me any heartburn at all, save the international flavor and “how the hell can all this stuff actually go together?” anxieties (previous post), was the thought of starting cabling from scratch.  I’ve had a sufficient number of binding cable runs, etc., to know that it’s not automatically successful, and I was less than happy about learning on this build.  Fortunately, I stumbled into my nearest (almost nearest) Trek dealer, City Bicycle Works in Citrus Heights.  There the neighborly mechanic not only sold me some of his personal stock of hard-to-find (in Sacramento at any rate) SRAM white cable housing, he gave me the quick tour of which fittings go with which kind of housing, the difference between brake and derailleur housing, how to cut it, the works.  His significantly younger helper, not to be outdone, demonstrated skills with hand motions and eyebrows in thumbs-up expressions of support and good will.

The Citrus Heights City Bicycle Works store is the corner hardware store version of the City Bicycle Works kingdom.  You want people who’ll take the time to bring you to understanding, this is the place.

If you look closely at the lever positions, no, they are not quite in the right spot, but everything works like a champ.

Oh, and brakes… why does Campy sell front brakes with backing inset nuts that are too short for 90% of all forks out there?  Is that to keep their advertised weight down?

Campagnolo, I had translated what I have to say to you about that:

Ciò è una strategia stupida.