August 21, 2006

Nutz & Boltz

I'm two steps ahead on last year already! I went to the first cross race last year on a freshly built cross bike and soon found out that riding in the park a few times is no test like racing is. I think I dropped my chain about 20 times during that race.
Today, I dismantled my old ultegra 9 speed crank that had downhill demolition style chainring guards, and got my new ultegra 10 speed crank set up with Salsa cross guards. I know, I'm not pro enough to afford Dura Ace but I think Ultegra is good enough. Besides, you have to use 17mm long steel crankbolts to hold all this together cause as far as I can tell, no one makes aluminum 17mm crankbolts. It would just be lame to put steel bolts in DA cranks!

The finished product, a perfectly balanced 42t chainring sandwitched between the crossing guards. No chains falling off this year! Sure feels nice to get that out of the way allready, it would take an amature hours to figure, grind, and setup those spacers to work that perfect!
Now, if I could just find some 17mm alloy bolts.

Next on the list, a bike to put it on. Anyone looking?

2 comments:

Neil said...

I don't know if these guys have crank bolts but might be worth a call.
http://www.racebolts.com/

Ian Stanford said...

Aretha Franklin was the one looking for just a little respect. And poor Rodney Dangerfield got none of it. See you guys this weekend if Trek gets my bike back to me by then. It is messed up.