dream bigger!
even comes with a certified rad onza stem
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HY
Nitto Dove tho
515mm bars keeps you well outside the reddit xbike realm, so congrats on that.
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I was worried the Albatross or Billie Bar (or some other boutique Crust thing or Leker Leks) might be too wide, and I wasn’t gonna spend over $100 on bars anyway. Found the B347 was a middle ground between those and B302AA “North Road.” Didn’t want too much rise or for them to just be the same as some bars off an old Schwinn or crappy beach cruiser. I hope they’ll be fine!
Here they are in the stem from @jame5on
Used, $75 all in with shipping & tax, not too bad.
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580mm too wide for basket jammer? this thread is no longer for me.
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Haha I’ve just never ridden or built a bike like this before! It will definitely have some kind of front rack or basket. Am I gonna have an “uh oh” moment with the Dove bars!?
Honestly though once I got them in I was like “hmm.” and I think the grip area will be too short to comfortably accomodate Oury V2s, brake lever, shifter (and am I supposed to have a bell?), but that’s a problem for future room203.
i too create problems for future pears.
Wald basket is the best way and the most value you can get on a bike for $25
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My top priority on this right now is to get the rear wheel sorted, but I got my chainring in today and thought it was kinda interesting. Maybe it’s not, but this is uncharted territory for me.
That’s a beaut.
You’ll notice that it’s a tandem timing ring. It was a good deal for a very nice 110BCD 38t ring. Should work fine with an 8-speed chain (I hope).
You’ll also see what looks like metal plugs in the bolt holes. Maybe this is old hat to you and you knew right away what’s going on.
When I saw the photos of it, I thought the “plugs” were for protection of some kind before installing, “but why?” I thought. Never seen any other chainring with those before. Figured I’d have to pop them out to put bolts through. The bolts were included, but they weren’t super visible in the photos so I didn’t put 2 and 2 together.
Mystery solved.
The female part is a rivnut/nutsert. The shaft is knurled as you can see, and they’re pressed in.
The bolt goes into the back just like any other chainring bolt, except the part on the outside doesn’t have a hole.
Kinda cool? Kinda weird? Kinda boring in a way? It’s just not what I’m used to seeing so I don’t know how to feel about it, but it’s not like I hate it.
Crankset is a Sugino AC 110 triple which obviously needs to be cleaned and will be totally resurfaced.
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Whoa, I’ve never seen that either! Nice that you can pop it on without needing to buy special chainring nuts.
it’s kind of better
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Yeah I think it is too in some ways. Maybe a little less likely to loosen or back out.
The only negative I can think of is if you somehow manage to strip one, you’d have to bang it out, and then hopefully it’s like a normal chainring bolt hole with the coutnerbore so you can put a regular bolt in. Of course if that happened I would have to remove all of them for consistency. Another negative is now I can’t run fun-colored anodized bolts … 
Maybe I’ll put googly eyes on them or something.
But I am happy to have a Spécialités TA chainring.
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They look like a reverse version of the Sugino knurled bolts. You should be able to press them out if you really wanted.
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Had some time to myself last night and started tearing down the donor axle.
This is as far as I got:
Ordered the tool I need to remove the cup.
Tried with a hammer and screwdriver already, as well as a pin spanner. I tried both ways, and it’s likely reverse-threaded. I sprayed it with PB Blaster while I’m waiting for the removal tool.
Gonna be a b trying to get it off while the hub is not built into a wheel.
Since that was a bust, I decided to start cleaning up the rear rim.
Got things looking fairly decent with Nevr-Dull on the rim bed/spoke bed (whatever you call the area with the holes in it…), and then rubbed the braking surface with a scuffing pad.
Then since the rim was pretty clean, I thought I’d enjoy a nice satisfying quick win and remove the faded crusty decals.
Now, you can’t see what the labels say, but if you’re familiar with the stock rims on 90s RockHoppers and StumpJumpers, you’ll know the one on the left is supposed to say “X23,” “BX23,” “GX23,” etc. in a large red font, and then the other one has the OG Specialized logo in red. The third sticker is a Wheelsmith spokes decal.
On the rear wheels, everything is completely faded, but on the front rim, I can still see “X23,” so that’s what I thought the rims were. Why would you not think that, right? The hubs are both the same Suntour line.
Back to my quick/satisfying win. Because I am insane, I had the rim decals reproduced. I replicated it in Illustrator and sent it off to Decals.com. Got a sheet of 6 pairs.
[Edit] The win was that I was going to adhere the reproduction decals to the rim, then I got derder’d.
As I was carefully lifting off the gross decals with a razor, I see this:
Uhhh…
A perfectly preserved original decal … under another decal? Like what in tarnation is going on here?
And then I’m like, “well F. I just ruined this decal.” Accidentally sliced some of the good one, had no idea it was there!
Now I knew though, so I was careful with the other one:
What the heck is this!? BX23!?!?
That decal was decent enough that I’d have kept it, but also I have these repop stickers, and I don’t want to have mismatched decals, but it’s “not the same rim,” technically speaking. Oh, the dithers…
What on earth is going on here though? Were they like “Oh these are the same but it’s supposed to have X23 branding on it now, let’s just put that over top of the BX23.” But why also do that with the Specialized one?? The wheels came off the same bike, but of course someone could have replaced either the front or rear at some point, but still, why the double decal? Whatever man. They’re gonna both say X23 on them now.
So here you can see the jacked up Specialized decal, my new (NOS) “Built with the Best” Wheelsmith stickers, and the new decals I made.
You can clearly see the ghost of X23 on the left one.
The repros are … OK.
I’m satisfied with them even though they are a touch soft and the color isn’t spot on. Knowing me though, I’ll probably tweak the color and have them done again at some point, trying my luck with a different printer.
I also think the X23 has more of a shine on it than the … other rim, and I’m thinking about slightly knocking down the polish with a gray 3M pad, but they’re close enough that I don’t think it’s going to bother me.
They’re nowhere near perfect rims anyway, and they’re mid-tier rims at best, so I don’t know why I’m putting forth all this effort, but here we are.
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I know it’s early days, but tarcklebee nom for Dither of the Year
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that presupposes the build will be completed within the year
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How can it be Dither of the Year if it’s finished?
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Dithering exists in a superposition, both complete and yet unfinished. Depending on if the observer has looked into the parts bin.
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I know right!? When I posted today I noticed that the last one was 29 days ago. I have a lot going on and just can’t do side projects ever. The weather is getting good though and I’m chomping at the bit.
All I still need parts-wise to get it rideable is a chain and brake pads, it’s pretty much just a matter of cleaning things and building now.
1 Like