Crazy Idea: Update 3

Well....it's rideable. It is not 'done'. I will have many things yet to do, or undo, as the case may be, depending upon my ride testing. But I spent all day, off and on, getting everything tidied up so I can actually ride the thing. 

As usual, there were a few snags. But the first thing to get out of the way was to renew the tire for the rear by getting off all the old sealant. This was quite the task, and the thing that took the most time of all.

The Buzzard was set up in a time when I was using "MG's Formula" for tubeless set ups. It is a home made recipe for tubeless goo which my dear friend, Matt Gersib came up with. (Don't ask what it is or how to make it. I've shared this several times here already.)

Anyway, that recipe dries to a skin, similar to how Orange Seal dries. Although, I had several layers in this tire and in places it had formed a kind of tube! So, to get it cleared off the tire casing I had to sit and peel, and peel, and peel. The beads took the longest. This was all of a few hours in total!

I did not have to re-tape the Dually rim though, so this saved a few minutes. Then I had to cable the bike up. But before I had done this, I finished swapping out the pins on the XT flat pedals I have. The pedals came with these worthless nubs which had zero grip. I don't even understand why Shimano would think these would be workable for any situation, but there they were, and out they came.

Cabling was going to be something of a hit and miss thing, since I wasn't sure what I had around to use. Fortunately I found matching silver/grey Jagwire derailleur and brake housings in my cable crate. I used this and then it was time to try and find brake cables.

See, I have almost abandoned flat bar bikes so I have next to nothing for cables. This was also the reason why I had to purchase a pair of excellent Shimano long pull brake levers which I found at the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective.

I found one flat bar cable, but I had to get another one from work yesterday. One check. The other check came when I tried spinning the rear tire after hooking up the cable and it would not turn. What!?

Turns out Shimano Ice Tech rotors do not clear Avid BB-7 calipers, (actually, it was those tabs hanging off the pads) in 160mm size. A 180mm rotor clears fine since the caliper sits far above the riveted section where the aluminum carrier mates with the stainless steel rotor. So...I had to find a SRAM six bolt rotor, and with all this Center Lock nonsense these days, I counted myself fortunate to have found one. Once installed, this solved the problem and I had a free-spinning wheel again.

Cable ties, cable routing decisions, tuning, and finer details were then all taken care of until at about 10:00pm last night I was finished. Now it will all rest on how the bike handles and performs. Looks may be a little off yet, but I did not care as all I need to do at this point is prove the concept. Is this a "crazy idea", or will it actually be a viable bike packing machine?

Stay tuned.......