Singular Cycles Mk3 Build: Update 4

I had to await the arrival of this part to complete the build.

Waiting. It isn't very fun, but when you get to be my age, you'd better have it figured out as far as how to do that. A day and then I'd have my part. Swap out the DT Swiss XD driver for the HG cassette driver and boom! Done! 

DT Swiss star ratchet hubs are actually pretty easy to work on. So I figured this deal was a slam dunk. But you know, this entire build has been fraught with hurdles I had to clear, and the free hub swap turned out to be no different in that area. 

I started working on the wheel, first removing the SRAM 10-42T cassette, and then I popped the end cap off the axle, which went a lot smoother than I was expecting it to be. Okay, pull that freehub body off now and..... Ah.... Where is the other star ratchet? There is supposed to be two, right? 

Well, one was stuck on the freehub body. Oh! There you are! As I discovered this, the spring, which resides behind the star ratchet, overcame the stickiness of the grease and .....Whee! Off it went with the star ratchet falling to the floor and the spring? Who knew? 

Great! 

Well, I took a break to calm down and when I was settled down enough to think I went back and decided that the spring couldn't have gone far. I started looking high, and moved down. It only took a few minutes and I saw it under a tool box all covered in dust and spider webs. 

Whew! 

One of the two "star" ratchet rings from the DT Swiss 350 hub.

Once the HG freehub body was swapped I could mount this slightly used 9spd cassette and the new chain.

Since I had the hub all apart and it was looking pretty black in there, I decided to clean it and re grease it. That went smoothly and once I had it all popped back together I mounted the 9 speed cassette and then I put on an e-bike rated 9 speed chain. I used that because it was the longest choice of the ones down at Waterloo Bicycle Works. The Gryphon is a longer bike and I wasn't sure 116 links, which standard chains come in for length, was going to be enough. 

Checking the chain line. Perfect!

The chain was stripped and lubed with the SILCA Super-Secret lube I've been using for a while now. Then after carefully cleaning it all up, I checked the shifting and amazingly I maybe turned two screws a total of a half turn. That was crazy! 

Taking a moment to admire the new rig.

After some admiring in the basement when I finished up all I had to do was get in a test ride. That would not happen until the next day due to it being night and the fact that we had just gotten a bunch of snow the day I finished the build. 

The first test ride went as well as I could have expected it to.

Ride Impressions: 

This is a BIG bike! Big in that it seems longer and a bit taller than anything else I have. I do have the saddle forward in the seat post clamp quite a ways and I might have to look for a bit shorter stem. Maybe a 10mm shorter one. Otherwise the fit is fine. I did note that I have less seat post extended above the top tube than I do on my Fargo, for instance. 

While this bike did not come in at what anyone would say is "light", I think it has to be pointed out that each tire weighs about a thousand grams and these wheels are not in the lightweight category either. It's a 'monster truck' compared to my other gravel rigs, but that's okay. It isn't doing anything that those bikes do, it does something completely different. But I'll get into all that in another post someday.

Back to the ride- It is a springy frame. I noted that while traversing some potholes in a back alley near my home. So, it will absorb some bigger hits well, I think. With all of this snow and ice, I wasn't able to push very hard. So, cornering, braking, and anything aggressive in terms of handling was not tested. 

All I do know now is that it shifts well, nothing fell apart, and those big tires are grippy! One of my purposes for this bike was to be able to handle mildly difficult snow conditions, which is exactly what we had the morning of my test ride. This bike traversed three to for inches of snow with no issues and showed some grip on some sketchy icy compacted snow, so I think it is a winner there. By the way, I was using right at 20psi set indoors, so something likely just below 20psi outside. 

Of course, I'll have to do a little "new bike" fine tuning. The front derailleur cable needs adjustment already, but that's no surprise. But really, this all came together far more easily and far better than I could have hoped. That all despite the hurdles along the way. 

More on the bike as I get longer rides on it, but as for this build, it is over. It is a success. 

Thanks: I wanted to give a shout out to some people who contributed to this build by sending me some of the parts I used on the bike. Some gave these parts a long time ago, some more recently. In no particular order: Brant Richards, Craig Severson, Jason Boucher, and Steve Fuller. Thanks also to Sam Alison of Singular Cycles for his bringing back the Gryphon in a new and improved state, and for his stellar customer service. Thanks to Mike Curiak/Lacemine29.com for selling me these Teravail Coronado tires. 

Thanks to you, dear readers, for reading this series on my Singular Cycles Gryphon Mk3 build.