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Saturday, December 20, 2025

Suck On You – Bike Snob NYC


Final week I fitted “trendy” wheels to the Cervino, and with 28mm Paselas and a 9-speed Hyperglide it’s working superbly–so superbly, that I ought to simply depart it the way in which it’s and cease messing with it, however sadly that’s not how I function:

As I discussed, placing a contemporary Hyperglide (or equal) chain and cassette on an previous drivetrain is such a dramatic enchancment in shifting that stuff like a dropped and slanted parallelograms turns into largely educational compared:

There’s no query a contemporary derailleur can be an excellent better enchancment, however after I stopped to make a restrict screw tweak I appreciated as I at all times try this the “open” design of the previous Tremendous File makes doing this really easy and handy that it would even outweigh the drawbacks of its primitive geometry. Should you take a look at the low-limit screw (the one on high) and the high-limit screw (the one on the underside) you’ll notice you you’ll be able to see precisely the place they cease the derailleur in both path, which takes all of the trial-and-error out of the method:

Granted, this doesn’t actually imply a lot should you’re at all times utilizing the identical wheels and solely must futz with the restrict screws on preliminary set-up, however should you’re switching forwards and backwards between wheels with completely different gearing as I’ve been doing it makes these little changes that a lot simpler.

Additionally, look how simple it’s to take this factor fully aside:

I as soon as tried to take an Ultegra derailleur aside and nearly misplaced an eye fixed when one of many springs ejected itself and left slightly gap within the wall. (Granted, you by no means truly want to take an Ultegra derailleur aside, so I suppose practically blinding you is Shimano’s manner of reminding you to not do it.)

Anyway, talking of switching wheels and practically injuring myself, it rained all day Saturday which made it an ideal day to remain in and do some tire gluing:

I’d already been stretching these:

After which on Saturday these infants confirmed up courtesy of a reader who was properly divesting himself of tubular tires and graciously supplied them to me:

I used to be very tempted to put in these tremendous tires as an alternative of the Gatorskins, however the roads are nonetheless fairly debris-strewn at the moment of yr, and it appeared a bit untimely to deploy the ballet slippers. Plus, I knew I’d make a multitude of issues, and if I used to be going to screw up I figured it was higher to screw up on the Gatorskins. This proved sagacious, for whereas I did handle to get them on the wheels, I most likely bought extra glue on the sidewalls than I did between the tire and rim.

Along with grappling with the tires, I additionally carried out a pulley transplant on the derailleur, for when placing on that 10-speed chain the opposite day I’d seen that one among them was cracked:

That is typical of previous Campagnolo derailleurs, as I discovered throughout my time with the Teledyne Titan:

I’m positive you might preserve driving a cracked pulley like that indefinitely however I already take so many pointless dangers out of laziness I figured I’d as effectively be answerable for a change. Luckily it seems that low cost Shimano pulleys match completely, in order that’s what I used:

By the subsequent day the solar had returned, so I went for a journey on the refurbished Cervino:

Shifting on the previous freewheel was noticeably improved with the 10-speed chain–one thing I’d additionally skilled in my time with the Vengeance Bike–so maybe the true key to higher shifting is solely a contemporary chain. Until in fact it was that Shimano Tourney pulley improve:

As for the tires, if I zoom in on the clear components it nearly appears like I did an honest job:

I did do an okay job of aligning them so that they roll good and clean:

Nonetheless, they do make a cheesy sound, like if you get a price ticket caught to the underside of your shoe within the grocery store. This factors to an insufficient glue job (shocker!) so I ought to most likely pull them off and add some extra. Would possibly as effectively, follow makes excellent…although today gluing tires is a talent solely marginally extra helpful than fountain pen overhauling.



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