Bike Project Part X

Finally, some action!


The Surly 42T Chainring, the Single Speed Chain and some new tyres and tubes arrived on Friday. So now I've got two combinations:

• 46T Chainring with Single Speed Chain and 16T Cog or,
• 42T Chainring with 8 Speed Chain and 16T Cog.

I'm setting up the 42T combo first.


I had a quick look on Saturday to check if I had enough adjustment on my dropouts to get the correct chain tension. It seemed like I'd need a half link connector - so more time to wait for more parts!


But as it turned out, I fixed it all up today and the tension is fine. Here's the setup:

It looks very tidy! Very happy with that!!

I also fitted the new tyres and tubes. The tyres are 700 x 28 (replacing 700 x 20) - and they were a bit of struggle to fit. But I got there eventually. So here's the bike as it looks now:

Finally for today, I've dismantled both wheel hubs and bearings - ready for a degrease, clean, regrease and reassembly.

I'm still contemplating whether to buy an alloy handlebar stem. The existing stem is painted white and a bit scratched and rusty. I need to decide that before fixing the bar tape.

Maybe I'll take it for a spin with the existing stem and no bar tape.

Later...