Cross Bike Build Part 1: Voiding Warranties

Judging from recent posts, it seems that people are racing their cross bikes already. 93 degree weather notwithstanding, I figured I should probably get my bike together if I plan on joinging the rest of you. To make sure that this actually happens, I went ahead and preregistered for Charm City and shipped my old bike off to some guy in Germany. And, since I am the self appointed "tech editor" of this blog, I thought I might as well share with you the process of the build.

The first step, as always, is to grind off some "Nader tabs." This is generally a straight forward modification. Most of the generic Asian made carbon forks have pretty flimsy tabs that grind off in a few seconds. Easton, however, with their EC 90 X, decided to design the safety tabs from hell. After 15 min on the grinder and an uncomfortably hot fork leg, I began to wish I had left well enough alone. In the end, I was able to get most of it ground down.


I'll be running a single ring up front this year so I needed to make a few other modifications. The obvious one is the crank. If anyone needs some 53 / 39 130BCD chainrings, let me know.


At this point, I needed to 'rob Peter to pay Paul.' Peter, in this case is my road bike and Paul needed his brake/shift levers.


Don't worry too much about him, he was paid back with some brand new Red shifters.



At this point I had a problem, I only really needed the front lever / shifter to act as brake lever. Since gutting Campy levers is one of my favorite past times, I figured that the SRAM levers would be a breeze. Sure enough, after consulting some instructions, it was quick and painless. It is also reversible in case I decide I need a double ring up front later on.

Before:


After:


Not only does this result in much better aesthetics, but I also save a total of 36 grams!


The final job for today was to build some wheels. This year, I'm going with a set of 50mm carbon tubulars that were designed specifically for cross and weigh in at just under 1400g and a set of 22mm alloy clinchers that that weigh just under 1300 grams. I market the latter set as a lightweight climbing specific road wheelset but I want to see how well they do under seriously inappropriate usage.


Obviously, I still have a lot of work to do and actually having time to ride the bike before racing it this Sunday is probably out of the question but I'll keep you posted on the progress.