Crazy Idea: Testing Again

 Last week I posted on the Velo Orange Eccentric Bottom Bracket and let you know I had decided on switching over to 1X 10 for the drive train. In this update I wanted to share my thoughts after the latest test ride of the newest set-up.

Going without a front derailleur seems like the "smart way to go" for many of you readers, I would guess. I do not prefer it, to be honest. I will admit to being pretty overly sensitive to certain elements of a bicycle's drive train, touch points, or other nuances many people do not even consider a "real thing".  I think many read my thoughts and probably think I am making things up. Well, that simply is not the case for me, at any rate. These things are real.

So, when my chain gets pretty angled going from a single drive ring to one of the lower gears on the cassette, I can feel this. Don't ask me how, but I can shift to a gear I feel is "good" and almost 100% of the time it is the straightest from the cassette to the drive ring possible. So, 1X set ups have never really been my preference as 2X or 3X allows you to keep your chain the straightest and most efficient.

This makes me wonder if I need a lower end range if I would not be better off going smaller on the drive ring. Bigger rear cogs create more extreme chain angles in the lower gears, so sacrificing high speed combinations for the lower end makes sense while allowing me to keep the rear cassette I have now on the bike. I'll have to examine some gear ratio comparisons before I decide, but this is where I am at with the drive train at the moment.

The bearing still needs to be upgraded on the non-drive side of the bottom bracket, although it spun well enough on this test ride. I still need a proper lower cup on the head set. And I still have not found my stash of six bolt rotors. I cannot mount a single speed cog on the front wheel until I settle on what is happening with the drive train. I'm getting closer to being done, but I'm not quite there yet. 

More soon. 

Velo Orange Eccentric Bottom Bracket: Update

 Note: The Velo Orange Eccentric English Threaded Bottom Bracket for 24mm spindle cranks was purchased by Guitar Ted at retail. Velo Orange did not ask for this review and all opinions are Guitar Ted's.

In the introduction to this component, I revealed a couple of limitations to its use which have made me make a decision on my direction concerning the drive train for the Singular  Buzzard. (Crazy Idea)

The big thing here is I had set up the bike as a 2X, so there is a left shifter and a front derailleur. I had this dialed in perfectly, as in "chef's kiss" perfect, and I was loathe to remove it to go 1X. Making the change to 1X would simplify things 100% though, so.... I guess I was going to have to do this and scrap my plan for the 2X.

Of course, this would mean I would either have to convert the 2X crank to 1X, or find a 1X crank somewhere. Fortunately N.Y. Roll had given me an XTR 1X crank set a few years ago and despite some cosmetic blemishes, it was in fine working order. Using an Enduro bearing in the drive side, which I had found in my parts stash, made for a set up with no "top hat" shim on that side. I still have to decide what I want to do on the non-drive side. I suppose another Enduro bearing wouldn't be a bad idea there. 

I need to think about the gearing now that I have a single front ring. That ring, as you can see from the image here, is a 36T. I'm good with this as a front drive ring. My low gear in the cassette is currently a 34T. Yeah..... That's probably not quite enough.

So, I'm probably going to be looking for a wider ranged ten speed cassette, a new chain, and a decision on bearings on the bottom bracket. I'd like to have used the stock Velo Orange top hat shims and bearings but they just are not quite right.

I'll get something figured out with this entire set up sometime soon, but it may take me a bit, ya know, considering all I have been going through here. But now you know the plan and where I hope to end up.

Once I get all those bits on the bike and running I just need to find my stash of six bolt rotors and the front wheel can then be fitted with the proper rotor. The final part will be a single speed freewheel. If all goes well my "Crazy Idea" bike will be finished and I can demonstrate the single speed bail-out mode which the Velo Orange bottom bracket will be an integral part.

Programming Note: Tomorrow is my son's memorial service. Instead of running the usual FN&V I am going to post his eulogy which I wrote. So, that will be Friday's post and then we'll get back to regular blogging on Saturday. Thank you all for your kind comments and support during this difficult time. 

Velo Orange Eccentric Bottom Bracket: Review

Note: The Velo Orange Eccentric English Threaded Bottom Bracket for 24mm spindle cranks was purchased by Guitar Ted at retail. Velo Orange did not ask for this review and all opinions are Guitar Ted's.

In my posts about the "Crazy Idea" Singular Buzzard makeover, I have mentioned one of the key components to making my idea work was to somehow have the ability to convert the Buzzard to a single speed, should the need arise. The Buzzard has vertical dropout6s and a standard, threaded bottom bracket. So, how would I be able to convert to single speed?

I could pack a chain tensioner device, but many rear derailleur mishaps involve the mangling of the frame drop out, and this might be a hindrance to using a chain tensioner device, which is essentially a derailleur cage without the parallelogram bits.

The other way to go about this would be to use an eccentric for the bottom bracket. This would allow a small amount of chain tensioning. Hopefully just enough to get you back home in case of an emergency/accident out on a bike packing trip. I'm not expecting a device which would allow single speed performance at a very high level, but if this is the case, I won't be angry about it! (If you need an explainer for my idea and how a single speed adapter would work in this scenario, see my article HERE)

The Velo Orange Eccentric Bottom Bracket comes with everything you see here and a wrench!

What It Is: The Velo Orange Eccentric Bottom Bracket is a device which allows for a small amount of chain tensioning via the offsetting of the spindle of a typical two-piece Shimano type crank. The device also comes with a shim to allow for certain SRAM crank sets to be used as well. It is important to note that any crank set with a larger than 24mm spindle will not adapt to this product.

Since the bike I am using has a Shimano SLX  2X crank set, I was hoping to be able to employ the VO bottom bracket as a way to tension my chain in case an emergency set up for single speed is required. There are shims and a wavy washer in the box which should allow one to properly set up the bottom bracket with your compatible crank set, but I do not expect these will be necessary in my case. Of course, I won't need the SRAM non-drive side spindle adapter either, but it is there in case you need it.

 The spanner wrench you get with a purchase of this component is actually pretty nice. It is steel, pretty beefy at about 3mm thickness, and is not only useful for setting up this bottom bracket, but might come in handy for track lock rings or old-school bottom brackets you may have around. 

The Velo Orange Eccentric English Threaded Bottom Bracket 24mm sells for $100.00 plus shipping. My first take on this bottom bracket is a good one. It is well made, the bearings are smooth, and in typical Velo Orange style, it looks great.. Read on to see how the eccentric works.  

Technical Details: The eccentric works  by way of three grub screws in the rim of each bottom bracket cup. When loosened, this allows the outer bit of the cup to rotate which changes the position of the eccentric hole, thus allowing for a small bit of chain tensioning. The bearings are pressed into this cup and it uses a similar "top hat" shim for the inner diameter of the bearing which the crank spindle comes into contact with.

It should be noted that the cups and the adjustment of the eccentric is independent on each side. Meaning you have to be careful to visually align the cups to get the bearings to line up symmetrically to avoid binding. While the instructions do not say this, I would suggest leaving the grub screws loose in one cup so you can insert the crank and move the loose cup's adjuster to align with the other, then tighten the grub screws to the indicated torque setting on the cup housing.  

The cups are threaded as with any traditional, threaded bottom bracket, with the left side being right hand thread and the right side being left hand thread. Velo Orange marks the cups so you won't get confused. There is no provided 'tube' between the cups, although I found a typical Shimano tube plugs right into the inner part of each cup perfectly.  Installation is pretty simple and the spanner wrench comes in handy here. 

Problems: Unfortunately I ran into a couple of problems with this bottom bracket. First off, I found the Shimano SLX 10 speed crank I wanted to use would not pass through the bearing/plastic shim on the drive side. It was as though I had the wrong size crank spindle for this bottom bracket. I tried two other HollowTech, 24mm spindles cranks and neither of those would pass through the bearing/shim. So, I disassembled the bottom bracket to do a few measurements.

Using a digital calipers, I found the inside diameter of the Velo Orange top hat shim on the driveside to be 23.92mm. Compared to the top hat shims in the Shimano bearing cup I saw a measurement of 23.97mm. This would account for why the inner diameter of the Velo Orange bearing/shim would not pass over the spindles of my crank sets. Oddly enough, inside diameter of the top hat shim in the non-driveside cup of the Velo Orange bottom bracket was slightly larger in diameter  So, placing it into the drive side I was able to insert the crank into the bottom bracket which led me to the next problem. 

The mounts for the inner chain ring on the crank would not clear the cup's outer dimension, so full penetration of the spindle into the cup was not possible. In effect, this means this bottom bracket likely is not compatible with any 2X HollowTech MTB crank set from Shimano.

Obviously I was very disappointed. This information was not available on the Velo Orange site, so I was unaware this might be the case. But I have informed Velo Orange of the issue. In response, my contact mentioned the design was "...really designed around being used with a 1 x set up". My contact person also very graciously offered a refund, but I have decided to keep this and try a 1X or find another application for it. Sadly, it means the idea I had for the Singular Buzzard will have to rely on a tensioner now for single speed set up if I stick with the SLX crank set. (Unless I decided to go 1X, which would fix the issue. I'll have an update on the "Crazy Idea" bike explaining my choices later)

So Far... I would like to see a product like this made with round cups instead of the current hexagonal shape which I believe would help the cups to clear a crank set like the one I am using currently on the Buzzard. My contact at Velo Orange when presented with this idea agreed it might help with a 2X set up.  I also would like to see a better quality control for those top hat shims. But in theory, this is a good product. I'll get this on the Buzzard with a 1X or on one of my other bicycles soon.Then I will be able to give further impressions on this product. 

Stay tuned.... 

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.......