Fine-Tuning

I rode the blue fat bike to work, on Friday, and I was impressed with how well it rides. I made really good time, and felt mostly good about how the bike was set up. A few things, which need to be addressed, presented themselves, however.

1. The seat position was a little off. I need to move it back, slightly.

2. I think I will end up installing some Ergon grips. The round Yeti grips are not that comfortable, to me.

3. The middle chain ring on the Vuelta crankset is apparently shot. Even though I never had any problem with it, on the red Mongoose, the chain skipped over the teeth whenever I torqued on the cranks. I ended up riding with the chain on the big ring (or the small ring, to climb), to avoid problems.

Today, I pulled the bike out and double checked what was happening. Since I wasn't actually commuting, I could spend some time testing the drive train. Eventually, it became obvious that the chain ring was going to have to be replaced. I didn't really want to spend any money on the repair, so I started looking through my parts boxes, hoping to find a 4-bole chain ring which would fit the crank-arm.

Eventually, I came up with a Shimano XT crankset, which has the Octalink interface between the crank and the bottom bracket spindle. I have the crank, but not the matching bottom bracket. Luckily, though, the chain rings have the same 4-bolt pattern as the Vuelta crank, on the bike.

So, I replaced the cheap, steel, rings on the Vuelta crank with the much higher-quality Shimano rings (and chain ring bolts).  It was nice to save the $100+ replacement cost, by finding these in the slush pile...

Another thing I found was a front fender, designed for a suspension fork, which mounts by means of this bracket.

The fender, itself, is a two-piece affair, where each half bolts to either end of the bracket.

The bracket then mounts to the fork steerer by way of a star nut (which I found on another, similar, fender, in a box of spare parts). I will mount this to the fork of the Dolomite, then fashion fender halves appropriate to the tire width. I'll post pictures, when it's done.

I will probably upgrade the rear hub, eventually, to get rid of the thread-on freewheel and use a cassette cogset. Yes, I found a hub in my parts, also, which was left over from another project.

I really should inventory my parts, someday...

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