Points Of Interest About My Handsome XOXO

 When I built up the XOXO, I used the 175mm XT cranks that I had taken off of the titanium FUNK.  I took them off of the ti-bike because I was having a severe problem with pedal-strike in turns.  I had accidentally specced the bottom bracket height a bit low, on the FUNK, so I figured that the cranks were just too long for the bike.  I replaced them with 165mm XT cranks, and put these aside for later use.

Now, I have the 175 cranks on the XOXO, with a standard 12-1/2" bottom bracket height.  And, I am having problems with pedal strike in the turns.

Now, I will admit that any crank/pedal combination can be touched down, if you are riding aggressively enough.  I'm hitting the pedal on the pavement  as I turn from one street to another at 12 or 13 mph!

Take a look at the picture, above this paragraph, and note the wide Q-factor (distance between the pedals) which is produced by a combination of the outboard bottom bracket bearings and the profile of the crank arms.

Yes, the pedals are fairly large, but they are actually a bit smaller than the pedals on my Bridgestone XO-2 (which also has 175mm cranks), and I don't have this problem on that bike.  The XO-2 has a standard bottom bracket, and lower-profile crank arms.

I plan to try to just adapt my riding-style to mitigate the problem, but I may end up replacing these cranks, yet again.

 You can see, by the amount of material removed from the pedal spike, that when I say I am grounding the pedals, I don't mean that they are just brushing the pavement.  When this happened, it kicked the rear wheel up into the air, and I almost crashed.

Another interesting point about the bike concerns the drivetrain.  I originally built the bike up with a 9-speed SRAM cogset, 8-speed Ultegra shifters and this SunTour XC Pro derailleur.  I planned on using the shifters in friction mode, so the mismatch of the components didn't matter. But, I didn't like the 9-speed cogset for a friction-shift bike.

I found the 9-speed cog spacing to be just a bit too close for me to easily get good clean shifts.  I am used to 7 or 8 speed cogsets, in friction mode, and I wasn't enjoying having to spend so much attention to the shifting.  (Yes, I am a lazy bicyclist.)

So, I found some 8-speed cogsets and chains at a good price, on Amazon.  When they came in, last Thursday, I installed an 8-speed SRAM cogset and chain. 

Cool.  Now the friction-shifting should be easier.  Just for kicks, I set the shifter to "Indexed" mode.  I knew it wouldn't work, because SunTour derailleurs are not interchangeable with Shimano derailleurs.

Except, apparently, in this case.  The combination of Shimano Ultegra shifter, SRAM cogset and Suntour XC Pro derailleur indexes perfectly.

Weird.

I wish had another of these derailleurs, to see if it would work, or if I just have an odd derailleur.

I think that, maybe, this is a 7-speed derailleur, and the Suntour 7-speed cog spacing must have been very close to Shimano 8-speed cog spacing.  Anybody out there know if this is the case?

I have ridden to work, the past two days, despite the fact that my Achilles tendon still hurts.  I figure I will just have to get a referral to a foot-and-ankle doctor and see it the specialist can help me out.

In the meantime, I am digging the bike and enjoying the ride.

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