jindyfab

[jindyfab]

A flurry of weekend activity and she’s finished!

Completely the build was straight forward with one exception. We’d talked about taking the logos off the seat post for aesthetics but ended up having to take them off to reach the insertion point required. I threw a bunch of ideas at it until finding just the right Dremel abrasive buff that, with the right technique, brought them off quickly without touching the carbon. The seat post is so far in we could definitely trim a significant portion off the bottom.

Total weight: 7,897g

Total cost: $6,807

First ride report to come.

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The Columbus fork is cut and fit. The shortened steerer brings the weight down to 351g at a length of 164mm above the crown race. Nice.

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The dream wheels for this build would be a set of Enve 2.2s or Zipp 202s. They weigh around 1400g and offer a black braking surface. At $2500+ they push the budget too far.

The next best option would be an alloy set of HED Ardennes Black or Campagnolo Shamal Mille. Only slightly heavier than the carbon options, still with a black braking surface but still expensive at $1200+.

For now we’ve compromised: taking a set of 32h Open Pros laced to Ultegra hubs off a spare bike. They’re super heavy at 1900g for the set but they have a classic look and the price is right at $0. Wheels will be a nice first upgrade when the time is right.

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Adding Etap blips to the mix for top of the bars shifting has been a last minute decision. It’s one thing for Sram to put their Etap components in boxes this big when it’s a fragile part like a rear derailleur but doing it for blips is outrageous. The part has no moving pieces and only weighs 11g total. The blip box is massive and at 450g is 38x heavier than the part itself. I’ve already bought it, you don’t need to market to men just deliver it in a plastic bag.

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It took about half an hour of filing to get the top right bolt tab to fit with the curved crank spider (as per Wolf Tooth’s official instructions) but we got there. Sure the arms don’t flow smoothly into the rings and the tabs are a little offset but I think it looks amazing. At 571g total it’s a solid 50g under the weight of mid-compact 9100 double rings.

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The Superleggero stem arrived. It’s light at 101g but it’s only a tiny 90mm and the advertised weight was 85g. Oh well, it looks pretty and will be even prettier when we’ve attacked it with a healthy dose of acetone.

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Lawyer lips on the Columbus fork have been dremeled into oblivion.

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The Chris King T47 24x ceramic bearing bottom bracket is in. I’ve never installed at T47 BB before and it required the purchase of an extra tool, as beautifully made as the bottom bracket itself. I used the excellent Finish Line Premium Grease. I couldn’t find an advertised weight but it came in at 122g including the quite heavy duty plastic sleeve that sits inside.

Ceramic bearings were a bit of a splurge but worth it for a bottom bracket in my opinion. Cranks haven’t arrived so I can't do a spin test yet but I’m sure it’ll be great.

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The Wolf Tooth RoadLink and Etap WiFli medium cage derailleur have been affixed. We won’t know how well it works until the wheel, cassette, crankset and chain are on.

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The ring and matching bolts arrived. Weighing in at 87g, a pleasant 3g under the advertised weight. They’ll require a slight modification to fit the 9100 crank spider but I’ll need to wait for it to arrive before breaking out the file.

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New developments in 1x chainring options

When I first looked at 1x crankset and chainring options just three weeks ago Absolute Black’s only 1x option was the huge direct mount only aero ring. It was a little disappointing since I think their rings look the best with really nice 9100 crank integration.

The Wolf Tooth rings I ordered instead arrived today. A day after I read about Absolute Black expanding their 1x range to a smaller and Shimano-compatible set of options at EuroBike. If it happened a month earlier these would have been my choice but they’re still not available on the website for sale so we’ll stick with Wolf Tooth for now.

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The headset arrived and is installed along with the crown race and fork. It’s a testament to Indy Fab that without any additional reaming or facing the headset slid in perfectly tight and smooth. It looks amazing and I’m happy to have the fork attached. It’ll remain uncut until the stem arrives.

It weighed in at 123g total including the crown race. That’s 25g heavier than the 98g I had listed in my spreadsheet although I don’t even know where I got that number from. A small bummer but whatever. I’m excited that the build has finally begun.

Many more parts are being delivered this week.

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New developments in rear derailleur range extending technology

All my gear ratio calculations have been based on the Wolf Tooth RoadLink hanger extension which allows a 36T biggest cassette cog with an Etap WiFli rear derailleur.

Since then Wheels Manufacturing have released the Extended Hanger. It’s a slightly longer hanger extension that apparently allows up to a 42T cog for a 1x setup. I’m a little dubious of their information given it’s relatively low on details compared to Wolf Tooth’s. They don’t specifically call out any derailleurs.

Revisiting the original post:

In conclusion we’ll have a 44T single chainring with an 11-36 cassette, a Wolf Tooth RoadLink and an Etap Wifli rear derailleur for a low ratio of 1.22 to high of 4.00.

The new range range unlocks the Sram GX XG-1150 MTB cassette with an expanded range in both directions at 10-42. Keeping the 44T chainring that gives us a 1.04 low and 4.40 high ratios. It’s tantalizingly close to the magical 1:1. With this new range we could get 1:1 with a 42T ring and still have a bigger high ratio than the Wolf Tooth RoadLink.

The build quality of the RoadLink looks significantly better than the Wheels counterpart with chamfered edges and laser etched graphics. I’m wary of extra flex that might affect shifting with the longer adapter but the possibility of an even wider range than Jess’s current 2x setup is appealing. 🤔

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Brakes

Ever since I first saw them I wanted a bike with a set of eeBrakes. They look super cool, weigh nothing, I’ve heard good things about the feel and they seem to have gotten better and better since Cane Creek acquired eeCycleworks. I had hopes of putting them on Jess’s Indy Fab but alas they push the budget too far again.

Instead we’ll install the latest iteration of the caliper brake gold standard since 7900: Dura-Ace 9100. Even at the low ~165g a piece they’re _double_ the weight of eeBrakes but the simple, refined design and undeniable performance and feel make them the right choice. I’ve now got lots of experience using them in conjunction with Etap levers and the operation is perfect. Only $250 for the pair at Merlin Cycles.

For brake cables we’ll choose Jagwire Road Elite Link kit. After a couple of installs using Nokon’s similar style compression-less cable sets I was convinced of the idea but saw consistent manufacturing defects. Jagwire’s version feels far more refined and polished, is equivalently low weight, has that cool skeleton look and comes with some nice small parts that eliminate the need for frame protection stickers.

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Chain

Simple: KMC’s X11. They’re unidirectional, use missing links, are compatible with everything and they’re only a few grams heavier than the hollow pin “SL” version. 

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Tires and Tubes

A few months ago I got a great deal on a bunch of Panaracer Competition Japanese made gum walls. They’re 25mm and ultra light at just 182g as I’ve weighed them. I believe these use the same casing as my favorite tire: The Compass Cayuse Pass (previously the Blue Cerf). The puncture protection isn’t great but they have an amazing road feel. Jess has ridden them before and loves them.

As for tubes: the Continental Supersonic weighs almost _half_ of a standard tube at a touch over 50g and I’ve noticed no difference in puncture protection at all after thousands of miles. Bonus: they roll up to be _tiny_.

Combine these tires and tubes and you’re looking at over 200g saved on what would be considered a still-decent setup.

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Bottle Cages

For years the Tacx Tao was my go to cage. Super cheap and light but after the third or fourth cracking at the bolt holes I switched to my favorite cage, the ever dependable Arundle Mandible. 

I’ve ridden with Mandibles across many bikes for years now and have found them to hold bottles with a firm grip but with an ease of removal and insertion. I’ve never had one break after tens of 1000s of kilometers. 

Most recently, in an attempt at weight saving I switched to the half as heavy Altitude Ultra. While I really like the minimal look and light weight they’re more difficult to get a bottle out of and don’t guide the bottle in the way the Mandible does.

The Lightweight Edlhelfer would be the dream choice but is unjustifiable at $300 for a pair. For Jess’s build I’m going back to the Mandible in the UD matte oil slick black color option. They’re not cheap at $70 each but they’ll last forever and never be a frustration to use.

For bolts we’ll go with the ~1g/each Woodman Lite. Just $8 for 4 and you can’t go lighter.