Naked Panther

[OddJob]

That particular Manitou had a 7 5/8" steerer, that's what caught my eye...
Those road cranks have a real low 'Q factor' (distance between the holes on the two crank arms where the pedals thread on to the crank). I can believe they would be too narrow. What size ring do you want ? 32t....34t..?

 

[Chad T]

That particular Manitou had a 7 5/8" steerer, that's what caught my eye...
Those road cranks have a real low 'Q factor' (distance between the holes on the two crank arms where the pedals thread on to the crank). I can believe they would be too narrow. What size ring do you want ? 32t....34t..?

I think I was looking at that fork. I thought all the Manitous on ebay were too high priced and I like the thought of a modern fork with springs. Should be good for the 48 yr old lazy cruising I like to do.

On the chainring I had originally decided on a 40t. That gives me a slight under drive with the rear 42t low gear. But with all the extra grams from the fork and seeing that the 40t is hard to get close to the frame I'm thinking about a 36t. I'm just guessing tho I haven't done any math.

Sounds like you know something about this OJ. Rear cassette is 11-42 with widely spaced low ratios. 32t would open up a lot of crank options that come with a ring. 170mm arms is what I'm hoping for. 175s are a shade long for my 5' 10" with short legs.

Should have known it needed more "Q-factor"

 

[OddJob]

Yeah, 32t would be for mostly off road mtb trail riding. And I forgot you have that 11-42 cassette. So a 36 or even 39 should work pretty well for mostly 'cruising'. You could always pick up a 32t crank / ring combo and try it. If it's too easy, you could move up a ring size or two. Of course, you would have to adjust your chain length up, so it would be best to kind of decide before you cut it....

 

[hewey]

This is coming along really nicely.

I feel your pain on the fork front. I've got a 1 inch threadless fork on my build off bike, and I want to go to something simpler, and there just aren't many options (even less in Australia, international shipping can be a killer).

 

[Chad T]

Yeah, 32t would be for mostly off road mtb trail riding. And I forgot you have that 11-42 cassette. So a 36 or even 39 should work pretty well for mostly 'cruising'. You could always pick up a 32t crank / ring combo and try it. If it's too easy, you could move up a ring size or two. Of course, you would have to adjust your chain length up, so it would be best to kind of decide before you cut it....

Man the crank search is a veritable mine field of potential disasters. The ones that look like deals are usually bb30 or 83mm sets. Both of which wont work with this bb. After looking at the bicycle gearing calcualtor TRM posted I think 40t front is about what I was after. Similar top gear to my 20 inch Stingrays with 52t and 50t front and 11t rear top gears. +I've got 10 more teeth on low gear than those. Might try for a 38t.......direct drive would look cool maybe..

This is coming along really nicely.

I feel your pain on the fork front. I've got a 1 inch threadless fork on my build off bike, and I want to go to something simpler, and there just aren't many options (even less in Australia, international shipping can be a killer).

Thank you....yeah the one inch fork selection is not much. 1 1/8 is almost too much selection though. I got lucky I can run this inexpensive suspension fork and I think it will look good on there...hopefullly...should ride nice anyways.

 

[Chad T]

Finally finished the rear brake mount. Works out nice with the 203mm rotor. Triangulated drillium mount.

Cleaned the head tube and installed the badge with some of the good 3m double sided tape I had.

Grip choose. Wanted to try something different with the Dia Compe levers.

Yellow matches tiny yellow spots on shifter.

Check out the box this headset came in. Has like an escaped prisoner or something.

It's not the Chris King I was salivating over at the bike shop but it's "professional, good quality, smooth and precise". (alloy cartridge bearing...meh...it's black)

Time to re-calculate the front spoke lengths for the front disc hub.

Got cranks ordered. Race Face Chester cranks. Chain Reaction had them with no ring but 68/73 bottom bracket included. They also had good pricing on the Race Face narrow/wide rings so I got one of those in 38t size.

$17 Avid BB5 brake caliper to match the rear is my wild card with the long overseas delivery window (all the way to Jul 25 )

Puppy is tired of shopping.

Glad we have 2 months left. I may need it. Lemme know which grips you guys like.

 

[SkyknightJohn]

Any foreseeable issues with the rear caliper and the horizontal dropouts? I mean, will it have only one happy location & if you adjust the wheel forward/back will it be a pain to re-align? I've been deciding between disc and drum for my build, and haven't really figured how disc would work with my horizontal drops.

Looking good though. & I vote for plain black grips for the all-over black and chrome effect.

 

[Chad T]

Any foreseeable issues with the rear caliper and the horizontal dropouts? I mean, will it have only one happy location & if you adjust the wheel forward/back will it be a pain to re-align? I've been deciding between disc and drum for my build, and haven't really figured how disc would work with my horizontal drops.

Horizontal drops are one of the reasons I wanted to move that caliper. The inertia having it on top of the rotor pushed back on the axle. This should push up. I might throw my chain tensioners back on there for easy alignment. Will see how it goes. Wheel will be in and out a bunch before it hits the road.

Looking good though. & I vote for plain black grips for the all-over black and chrome effect.

Thank you.

 

[OddJob]

Grips are one place where you can go with color and add some snap to the build. Good choice on the RaceFace crank and ring! Bike has a nice stance....been awhile since we have seen a full bike pic.

 

[OneHorsePower]

i like the grips matching the shifters , but if you go this way , i thing it would need some other stuff of the same collor to ty it in .. frame or tire graphics or the seat maybe ?

 

[Chad T]

Grips are one place where you can go with color and add some snap to the build. Good choice on the RaceFace crank and ring! Bike has a nice stance....been awhile since we have seen a full bike pic.

Thanks OJ...I was glad to find the Race Face after an exhaustive search. Thanks for your support through these setbacks. Here's another pic from the pretty side. 42t cassette almost covers the 203 disc. Front will be out in the open though.

...can't wait to see the black suspension fork on there. That will be like a before pic pretty soon.

i like the grips matching the shifters , but if you go this way , i thing it would need some other stuff of the same collor to ty it in .. frame or tire graphics or the seat maybe ?

Was pondering the idea of yellow cables. the routing with the built in guides might be worth highlighting. I would leave the shifter cable black though. The rear brake cable is on there and the black blends in nicely.

This is the danger I see with these yellow grips. Lots of temptation. I almost went with a lime green brake rotor and I was thinking about black cranks with a green ano direct drive sprocket.

 

[OneHorsePower]

Was pondering the idea of yellow cables. the routing with the built in guides might be worth highlighting. I would leave the shifter cable black though. The rear brake cable is on there and the black blends in nicely.

This is the danger I see with these yellow grips. Lots of temptation. I almost went with a lime green brake rotor and I was thinking about black cranks with a green ano direct drive sprocket.

Green ? shows yellow on my screen
cables is a great idea ! .. black and chrome is classy , but a punch of collor gives personality imo only you know whats best for you

 

[deorman]

Black goes with everything.

 

[metalchewy]

Yellow cables would look good with the polished metal.

You might want all cables the same color, depending on how well the black shifter cable is tucked under. My 0.02.

 

[Chad T]

Yellow cables would look good with the polished metal.

I think so too. If I had a set I'd try it.

You might want all cables the same color, depending on how well the black shifter cable is tucked under. My 0.02.

Your right there too. Might be weird with one black cable. Probably not going to go for yellow cables on this. Main reason being I wanted to go for that "invisible" cable routing where you hardly notice them on the bike.

It's funny you mention cables as that is what I was working on today.

Had one more u-brake boss to remove so I made that into a guide for the disc cable.

Then I cut off parts of the factory guides, drilled and tapped for some stainless screws and made clamps out of a Honda mirror cover.

Made the bottom bracket clamp out of a curved section of the mirror. It makes the cables wrap tightly around it. Ran a tap through the cable guide on the drive side chain stay and bolted an adjustment barrel to make that a stop.

Front brake cable will go through the hollow stem bolt that's already on there and straight to the disc.

 

[OddJob]

Using that brake boss for a guide is really cool! Nice work! Inventive use of that mirror housing! Check your BB cable guide. You might want to groove that a bit so the housing isn't deformed (out of round)....could be the camera angle, but it looks a little flatter to me. Once that metal lined housing gets crimped it can, pardon the pun, 'crimp your style' when it comes to braking or shifting...

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Good thinking on the cable mounts!

Luke.

 

[Chad T]

Thank you OJ. You know I had been checking the cables with an inner but hadn't tried it with that bottom one. Sure enough it was dragging. loosened it a bit and it was fine. I plan to make some spacers so there is something for them to bottom out on before they bend or pinch the casing too much.

Thanks Luke! Had to remove your guy's quotes to avoid the server error.

Just finished 7 10hr shifts in a row but I still had to lace the front disc hub up because it showed up with the new fork..

Pulled the stickers off the fork already. I plan on removing the v-brake bosses. Still need to cut the steerer too.

Rim is still schmeary from the lacing but it will shine back up.

 

[OddJob]

Figured you were on a long work stretch. That fork rake and crown pitch look spot on for your frame! The whole bike, tires, discs, frame, looks like it was 'made for each other'....

 

[Chad T]

Thank you OddJob. I like the way this is coming out.

Yeah this was my long change over week. Short weekend this week too. Good news is I'll be off July 1-13. Hopefully I can finish then if I haven't already. Getting close to having this thing a runner.

Next thing up is the crankset. These babys are a little heavy compered to the carbon road cranks but they're clydesdale cliff jumping approved.

Bottom bracket is a cool color. Kind of chocolatey.

Had to google chainline. Looks like I want my ring 49mm from the center line for optimum 1x performance. Haven't gotten much else done today though.

Took a couple pics with the black grips. I think I'm going to save the yellow ones for another day.

Had to change brake levers. OddJob was right about needing v-brake levers for the dics brakes. I went with these Shimano levers because I liked the ball ends. Most of the v-brake levers look the same and none of them are that cool unless you want to spend $100+ on levers. I think these will do the job nicely.