Dachshund gets a Seven

OK, here she is!

When I started riding again this year I decided it would be fun to get a custom bike. I have a very nice Bianchi that I do like, but it's too small for me. So I thought, hmmm, I could spend the summer test riding bikes again. This didn't exactly get me a good fit the first time, but maybe if I spend a lot more time at it.... Or I could wander over and see what Chris at Robinson Wheel Works has going on. If that works out, I could order a bike and then ride the Bianchi all summer. Hmmm...

Needless to say, I liked the custom idea. Chris is great to work with and a fun guy. He put up with my demanding gearing ideas admirably. :)

We just finished with the setup of the crankset - a TA Carmina crank with Zephyr rings, which SadieKate recommended. (thank you ever so much!) I was determined to keep the Campy brifters but wanted mountain gearing. The combo is 24-34-46 / 13-29, which isn't too shabby for this hilly area. The front derailleur that played best with this setup is an IRD Alpina-d.

So now that the shifting is working well, I can go out and start falling in love with my new bike. Yay! It really does handle well, and it's very light, fast, and smooth! Part of that is due to the wheels, which are Velocity AeroHead rims, White Industries H2 hubs, and Sapim CX-Ray spokes, 28 / 24. Jobob and SadieKate both steered me in the direction of these wheels. Excellent advice!

In case you're wondering about the orange bar tape, I will be getting the frame painted orange during the winter. Then it will make more sense.

-Amy

Excellent! You'll be ready for . . . anything! ;):D

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Originally Posted by maillotpois

Excellent! You'll be ready for . . . anything! ;):D

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Yes, I certainly hope so. :D Thanks!

Gorgeous bike!!!
CONGRATS!
:)

Very nice! I like that crankset a lot - both from an aesthetic view and an "I'm walking way too many hills lately" view.

Most excellent! Enjoy your new ride.

Veronica

Drool.....

She's very pretty!! What Brooks do you have on her?

CA

Excellent!!
She looks lovely. May you have many long and wonderful adventures together!

She is beautiful!! You may want to reconsider having her painted. I learned the hard way that titanium does not hold paint well. My terry titanium isis came with a lovely paint job, however, it chipped very quickly. I am hoping to find out if I can get it stripped rather than re-painted some day.

Beautiful! I know you'll enjoy it.

I love the look of raw Ti, and I like the ease of maintenance.

Sheri

Thanks everybody!

CA_in_NC, the Brooks is a B17, the TI version. It's a couple of years old.

aka_kim, yeah no kidding! There's a certain part of Palomares that I'd like to climb ON the bike. I mean I'm glad I have comfortable mtn bike shoes, but that's not exactly why I bought them..

Triskeliongirl, I imagine I'll have to live with paint chips. I'm going to have Seven paint it, then hope for the best. The raw titanium is nice, but I just have this thing about orange. Who knows, maybe I'll get over it. :rolleyes:

Beautiful bike. Congrats. Can I ask how expensive the TA Carmina crank/setup was? I was interested in something similar until I saw the prices on Peter White's website. Then, not so much. Now I'm leaning toward a Campy Centaur compact with a 13-29 in the rear as a much more economical way to go.

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Originally Posted by indysteel

Beautiful bike. Congrats. Can I ask how expensive the TA Carmina crank/setup was? I was interested in something similar until I saw the prices on Peter White's website. Then, not so much. Now I'm leaning toward a Campy Centaur compact with a 13-29 in the rear as a much more economical way to go.

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Unfortunately, I don't have an itemized bill for this. It's wrapped into the full price of the bike. I would go with Peter White's prices for starters. Also note that at least one of the chainrings must come with the ramps & pins. We found out the hard way that shifting doesn't work without them. After that experience, I'm not sure why any distributor would send out a triple without them on at least the middle ring.

But the full changeover would require a different bottom bracket, crank & chainrings, and chain. In my case the Campy derailleur didn't work so he went with IRD.

A compact double is certainly worth considering. :)

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Originally Posted by dachshund

Unfortunately, I don't have an itemized bill for this. It's wrapped into the full price of the bike. I would go with Peter White's prices for starters. Also note that at least one of the chainrings must come with the ramps & pins. We found out the hard way that shifting doesn't work without them. After that experience, I'm not sure why any distributor would send out a triple without them on at least the middle ring.

But the full changeover would require a different bottom bracket, crank & chainrings, and chain. In my case the Campy derailleur didn't work so he went with IRD.

A compact double is certainly worth considering. :)

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That's what I'm thinking, too, unless SadieKate has some words of wisdom for me. I priced the TA Carmina on Peter White's website, and with everything I'd need (I have plans to build up a custom Moots this winter), it was just beyond my budget. The Campy compact will work, but they don't offer a 12-27 in the rear, which is what I'd prefer. I'll have to go with a 13-29, which is fine, just not my first choice. That'll give me the climbing gears that, at least from experience, I tend to need on the steep hills we have in southern Indiana, unless the decrease in weight from my current steel Bianchi to a Moots makes that BIG of a difference in climbing (which I'm not counting on). I've thought about going with Shimano or Sram, but all other things being factored in, I prefer Campy.

In any event, the TA Carmina is a darn pretty crank. I just wish it wasn't so expensive.

Sorry for the thread highjack. Congrats again on your new bike!

Tell me about the cost of the Carmina! Oy, but it's been so worth it.

Another option is a beautifully polished Sugino. I have one on my Kelly Bonestock. Jobob and V use them on their Rivs. It's a great choice also.

I'm confused by why the Campy front der didn't work for your bike, dachsund, but one other question I just thought of: are your TA rings the Zephyr 9/10 rings? One other note, we install front derailleurs very low to the large ring, lower than many mechanics.

The middle ring should be ramped and the outer two should be pinned (the little stubby ones). The outer ring will also have one long pin pointing toward the crank arm though this ring has nothing to do with shift quality.

Your bike is gorgeous as is! No paint necessary.

depending on what you are looking for you could check out this site: http://www.xxcycle.com/stronglight-c...p?tri=prix,ASC
http://www.xxcycle.com/cranks,en.php
it sometimes has deals on stronglights and TA cranks. stronglight and TA are pretty simliar in that they have those fun, wacky tooth numbers that actually make more sense when you get down to it. because they don't charge taxes, which are already included in the price, the shipping is essentially null.

sorry from the aside. Your seven looks fantastic.

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Originally Posted by SadieKate

I'm confused by why the Campy front der didn't work for your bike, dachsund, but one other question I just thought of: are your TA rings the Zephyr 9/10 rings? One other note, we install front derailleurs very low to the large ring, lower than many mechanics.

The middle ring should be ramped and the outer two should be pinned (the little stubby ones). The outer ring will also have one long pin pointing toward the crank arm though this ring has nothing to do with shift quality.

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It does have Zephyr 9/10 rings, and the pins as you described. With the Campy der. it lagged, there was a delay before it lifted the chain. I'm not sure I ever mentioned to Chris about installing the der. lower.

And please hijack my thread, I like these discussions. :)

Just commenting on the derailleur height. I can't tell you how many times we've complained about the shifting when someone else has built a bike and fixed it by getting the derailleur to absolutely minimum height.

I just reread this thread and caught the specs for your wheels. I have the exact same custom wheels and they were also recommended by SadieKate. I love them, too. SK, I think you should start getting a commission from White Industries, Sapim and Velocity!

My BF just got a set of them
himself. But I had mine first. :)

All I did was tell her to go ogle jobob's and leebob's wheels. I think jobob took it from there. Kind of a tag team effort.

dachsund is soooo easy. :p

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Originally Posted by SadieKate

dachsund is soooo easy. :p

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Oh, you've found me out. :rolleyes: I gladly accept advice. This bike is proof!

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All I did was tell her to go ogle jobob's and leebob's wheels. I think jobob took it from there. Kind of a tag team effort.

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Yes, and Jobob graciously provided the full scoop, thank you ma'am! Spokes are a big deal - who knew? But you said one thing that stuck out there like a cartoon bubble, "those stock wheels are going to beat you up." Later I thought, I better find out what she meant by that. Here's one of the discussions that covered the technical stuff quite well, a little blast from the past -
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=11971

This bike flies down hills, it was actually pretty startling and I'm still getting used to it.

Wheels make such a huge difference.

If you live in the Bay Area and are looking for wheels, John Ackley of bfwg is definitely the one to go to. He's great to talk to, knows his stuff, and makes a damn good set of wheels. :cool:

We were talking just yesterday about the thrashing my mtb wheels are taking. They keep on ticking.

John is a big cool dude who knows his stuff.

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Originally Posted by dachshund

Oh, you've found me out. :rolleyes: I gladly accept advice. This bike is proof!



Yes, and Jobob graciously provided the full scoop, thank you ma'am! Spokes are a big deal - who knew? But you said one thing that stuck out there like a cartoon bubble, "those stock wheels are going to beat you up." Later I thought, I better find out what she meant by that. Here's one of the discussions that covered the technical stuff quite well, a little blast from the past -
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=11971

This bike flies down hills, it was actually pretty startling and I'm still getting used to it.

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Hee, hee. That's the thread that I started some time ago that led to my set of custom, SK-recommended, wheels!

I thought I'd share this little antedote. I took my Bianchi into the shop a month ago for a tuneup before my tour in Tennessee. The manager, who is generally a knowledgeable guy, pointed out some "play" in my front wheel that they couldn't adjust out. I got concerned (okay, I kind of freaked out) about whether I was going to find out the hard way that the bearings in my hub were shot.

I researched the issue online a bit, examined the wheel myself and sent an email to SK about whether she had experienced similar issues and then, at my wise BF's advice, called White Industries. A very knowledgeable woman in tech support talked me through it. In the process, I found out that it's okay to have some lateral play at the rim. In fact, it's normal. Where you don't want play is at the hub itself. White Industries' website also has some information about this. My wheel's play was at the rim. I sure slept better that night.

The point in telling you this is that (a) White Industries was very helpful and (b) local shops, no matter how good they are, may not be expert with wheels unless they build them themselves and, even then, it sometimes pays to just go to the source.

Oo la la!!!!

Congrats on your beautiful new bike!

Alex

And now for some color. :-)

Attachment 8481

Here's the 'before'.
Attachment 8482

WOW!!!

:D:D:D:D

Beautiful!

Ohhhh, nice! I love it!

It's fabulous.

I'm now craving a creamsicle :)

Yowza! That looks great.

Where did you have the painting done? I would like to have something similar (unpainted seat & chainstays) done to my Merlin.

Also, how do you like your Frogs? I use Speedplays on my road bike & like them a lot. Mechanic convinced me to try a pair of Eggbeaters on my commuter & I kinda wish I'd just gotten Frogs instead.

Very nice!

But now I want to paint my bike too.

Thanks everybody!

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Originally Posted by ilima

Yowza! That looks great.

Where did you have the painting done? I would like to have something similar (unpainted seat & chainstays) done to my Merlin.

Also, how do you like your Frogs? I use Speedplays on my road bike & like them a lot. Mechanic convinced me to try a pair of Eggbeaters on my commuter & I kinda wish I'd just gotten Frogs instead.

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I had it painted through the LBS, and they work with a local painter. Seven didn't have this shade of orange available, and the local painter accepted the standard car paint colors such as PPG & DuPont. I went to an automotive paint shop and looked through the catalogs. I bought samples of a couple of shades in spray cans and sprayed them on a piece of aluminum. Then I handed the bike and the spray can over to Chris at the bike shop, and crossed my fingers. :p

I'm really happy with the Frogs. There's no tension holding the cleats in. The only issue with them is that you can accidentally pull out from the back, so I occasionally do some odd moves with them. I've never liked clipless pedals, and these are my answer to the whole nuisance (for me.)

Great paint job!
I love orange bikes the colour just makes me feel happy. My mountain bike is orange and my kids call it the flying pumpkin.
May you have many wonderful rides together.:)