27th April 2012 : Day 0 IS2012
Oookay...........so i have finished work at 6pm. Out of office and on the way home.........with that new shiny Wilier GranTurismo frame at the back seat of my car. Waiting to go for operation later tonite. Luckily I have bought a new Deuter Futura Pro42 hiking bag to carry all my stuff i need for IS. Reason being a 42 Liter + 5Liter extra space backpack is much easier to lug around compared to hand luggage. And i can put more stuff in more spaces. I did all my main packing and sorting of stuff already. My check list is all in order. I just need to bring myself my bag and my bike (yet to be ready) to the starting point.
Got home around 7pm. Had dinner with my brother. Showed him the new frame. I asked him to guess the price. He started from 1500. Shook my head. 1800. Shook my head. 2000. Shook my head. 2500. Shook my head. 3000. Shook my head. 3500. Shook my head. "How much la????" he started to get worried. "4000???"
Yeah just about there. A little bit higher. He called me crazy. I am. Have been. Most likely will always be.
I dont mind him taking the whole frame turning it upside down inside out and seeing why did i get such a space aged frame? Well its not the top of the line frame anyway. But still yes it is a frame that costs quite a sum of money.
In the end i decided I will take all my tools and essential bike building stuffs over to my cousins house, setup the bike there and bunk in his place before going to IS12. Anyway he still needs a lift to the start point and I have a bike rack to carry the bikes. I went after dinner, and so leaving the house for a good 4 days of fun and torture. Stuffing 1 new frame and 1 bike minus the wheels and my 42 liter fully packed backpack and my toolset in my car was a bit of a chore. Luckily my cousins house is just 15 minute away.
Upon reaching my cousins house, seeing my aunt and cousin sister there, i took everything down from the car, and started to get to work. Its roughly 9.30. Im not sure how long i will need to fully transfer all my old parts to the new frame, but I will work as best and as fast as I can. My cousin was busy installing the new wireless meter he got. The old Cateye Wireless meter malfunctioned. Sadly it wasnt the transmitters fault. It was the main computer module unable to read the signal. Too bad. Hope the new one can work. Even so.......it looks way ugly compared to any other meter i have seen. :P
So task no 1 i need to do : Strip off existing parts from my Look first. This is the first time everything will come off since i assembled this frame myself back in 2007/2008. Time flies no? I loved riding this bike and had lots of memories with it. But it needs a good rest now. Body pretty much have lots of battle scars and wounds.
Stripping the parts off my bike took me like 10 minutes. Its pretty easy once you have the tools. Everything else can be taken apart with a set of allen keys except the bottom bracket (BB) and the cassette which need its own special tool. With that done, I put everything aside, put the old Look aside, and bring in the Wilier. I shall call it Willy for fondness sake. The first thing i put on Willy is the front deraileur (FD). Then the rear one (RD). The FD mount had some tolerance issues. Seems the FD will contact the frame in the low position. Need to put some sort of padding there. Some tape i thought off. Later i used extra length of my bar tape which is more softer and more cushy.. The RD had no problems at all.
While installing I keep admiring the complex shapes of the Wilier GT. Its not a normal frame shape like round tubes and square junctions. There are places the tubes are a mix of triangular with round curves and some places its a 5 sided polygon but its not a pentagon either. The rear seat stays start as square at the top but morphs into a flat rectangle towards the bottom, flat on the top and the name "Wilier Triestina" fits on the stays. The chainstays are asymmetrical. Larger on the non drive side. But they are huge at the same time. Nearly 2'' thick. This means its a stiff frame. And the downtube is a fantastic flat edge triangle (effectively a 4 sided polygon but not square in shape. And it morphs to a huge half round-half rectangular BB junction where its complicatedly joined with the seat tube and the seatstays. The top tube is flat at the top, rounded off on the sides, and more like flat nosed triangle again at the bottom. And it has an extra line running from the headtube towards the back and flows into the seatstays. Very very very complicated lines. The seat tube is a 31.6mm diameter size for standard seatpost size at the top. It goes through the big toptube/seat stay junction and goes down expanding into a bigger diameter tube to meet the BB junction. The fork has a 2 layer profile where the rear part overlaps the front part diagonally down to the wheel mount.
So...........can you imagine how it looks like? If not please visit here to have a look. Haha
There are tons of technology that went into this frame.......like internal cabling, asymmetrical seatstays, semi integrated seatpost design, etc...... basically its a frame which sounds like its fit for a race more than a saturday ride.
Anyway done with frame details...........back to work!
Next i installed the BB bearings and mounted on my crank. I will still be using my Dura Ace 54T and 39T chainrings this year. The seatpost is in. Btw its a carbon seatpost weighing at 204gms from ITM. Nice seatpost. Then I mounted the cassette on my..........ooppps.........i forgot to mention........... I am borrowing my cousins Shimano C24 Tubeless wheels this time. 1400gms wheels + 380gms tires. No tubes. Makes things much lighter. So the cassette is on the rear wheel. Both wheels go in so that the bike can stand up and I can install the rest of the stuff easily. Next was the stem and handlebar.
I paused a moment here.....................................very very long pause.......................................
I overlooked one thing.......................................
I do not have 1 1/8'' spacers for this fork. All i have are 1'' spacers for the old bike. Now I am in trouble. Bike shops dont open at 10.30 at night. Shit moment right here................Then my cousin said whats wrong. Told him i didnt have spacers. Last resort is I will have to install the stem right to the level of the frame. But that be agonizingly low for me. I didnt want the handlebars to be so low. I estimated I will need at least 2 spacers.
I thought and thought and though. I cant take my cousins spacers. I thought who else i know would have spare spacers at this hour. Let alone willing to lend to me.
And then suddenly out of nowhere...............a brilliant idea hit me................my cousin sister has a Polygon bike in the store room!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Its new!!! And I am sure that one has spacers on the fork! I went in and looked...........and behold! 3 beautiful 1 1/8'' spacers. I didnt care..........I was going to hijack these 3 fellas. For the sake of Interstate. Anyway I can always get spacers from any bike shop when i get back. And I get her new ones some more. Good cousin I am right?
So without haste I removed the stem and bars, took out the spacer and put it on my steerer tube. Fits like a charm. Now i can put my stem and start sawing off the extra length steerer tube. After a good 15minutes of sawing......sawing.......sawing..........the front cockpit of the bike looks like its made to looke like a professional. Not to mention i have a 100gms stem at the front. 100gms is like air. Ooookayyy.............with that done time to put on the top cap..........tighten it and adjust steering......................
Oh..............wait a minute.............top cap..............1 1/8". I was using a 1" system......................how to tighten my new fork with a top cap and a 1" expansion plug? Now again I am in deep trouble...........without this I cannot mount my stem safely onto the fork. Go without a top cap and my steering fork will be loose.
Now im in thinking mode again............................................................................okay. Lets see what my cousin sister's bike have.
And what i saw is...........a starnut. Though i know i should use a expansion plug, but now its just too late to get one. No choice now, i have to use the starnut for this time. So what my cousin and I did was we hammered the starnut out of the fork through the other end. The hammering attracted my cousin sister's attention...........and she wasnt too happy about what we were doing to her precious bike when she saw one guy holding a hammer and another guy holding a long screwdriver. Once again, she isnt riding 3 days straight like I need to.
Once the starnut was out.........I was somewhat relieved. I can have (at least now) a working steering system. Me and my cousin then slowly and what gentle way we can...........installed the starnut into the carbon steer tube. We didnt dare to put it in too deep to make removal next time easier. And this has no open end at the bottom like the other bike, mind you. I hope this works. Fingers crossed that the tube doesnt crack or break. And I can get some top cap pressure to lock my stem in place.
In the end...........it all was a good fit. Oh and I have to cut the steerer tube since it came stock long. Lucky to have brought my small saw along.Saw saw saw.........and its down to the length i want.
So now i have a working steering, driver train installed. Wheels in. Final part is cabling. Lucky that I have requested new cables from the shop just incase the old ones cant be reused. And i forgotten i have lots of spare cables from previous installations. Just that i forgotten to bring them along. Willy uses internal cabling and this is my first time doing internal cabling from scratch. There are white tubes coming out from the 3 places for internal cable routing :
1 - Top tube to BB for the RD cable
2 - Top tube to BB for the FD cable
3 - BB to rear of chain stay for RD cable.
These white tubes are for the cables to pass through the frame and out to the other end. They do this because the whole frame is hollow and there is no direct routing end to end. The rear brake cable also runs internally but it has its own tubing internally. Weird that they do for one and not for all. Would have make things easier.......
So I did the rear brake cable while my cousin helped with the front brake cable. I had problems with the rear brake cable because the outlet for the cable comes at an odd angle to go into the rear brake. Its too near. And my cable needs to be short. But too short and it cannot bend properly. And when this happened my rear brake felt mushy.......not the forceful grip. I struggled a good 30minutes trying to figure out how to get this problem solved.
Another problem i have is I do not have the special cable housing and cable cutter. Normal cutters will not work with these thick stainless steel wires and housing. The egdes will go blunt immediately. What I had to do is individually cut the strands of steel braids of the housing. Agonizingly........one by one.......for one end. Trust me its not a pretty sight with jagged cable housing ends........its tiring on the hands.........and it takes a hell lot of time. And 12am we are still not really done. Cable wise at least.
I could not get that rear brake issue done so i shall leave it first. We will tackle the shifting cables for now. Looking at these white small tubes.........I had to think first before i do anything as to how should the procedure be. Stupidly none of us thought of using the internet to check. I guess we were too engrossed in dealing the bare stuff with our own hands. The ends of these tube were taped up. Seems like it is not supposed to be out until the cable is in. OK. So trial run no.1.... RD cable. I opened up the tape. And see how this cable is going to to in the tube and out the other end. So slowly i threaded the cable inside the tube and out it came the other end.........looks cool. Smooth procedure. Then me and my cousin were thinking............are we supposed to pull out the white tube as well or leave it in? Like two smart engineers, we analyzed.........and thought lets pull out abit like half way. Pulled out half the tube from the BB side. And then we tried to see if we can pull it back up through the top hole. It could not come out. And so my cousing pulled the RD cable to try bring it out together............but still no.
Now............half the RD cable is in the tube inside the frame. And half the tube is out of the frame. One end cannot come out. So we thought lets thread the RD cable through the end and pull the whole tube out. But..........we cant get the RD cable through anymore. So I thought.......pull the tube with the cable inside out the back. So when I pulled the tube out......................................................
The RD cable did not come out. Its still in the frame.
The whole tube is out.
The cable is in the frame.
OK nevermind..........we try to thread the cable through the tiny hole..............and that proved to be an impossible task..............................
We have no sure way now to thread the cable through the other end of the hole. We cannot see the line of sight of the cables path.
We tried to thread the tube back in...............it just gets lost inside the huge down tube..........and we cannot see where the tube is going. It being soft didnt help.
NOW..................we were really in deep shit.........................................we turned the frame side ways.................upside down. Threading front to back. Back to front. We could not get the RD cable through from one end out to the other. For a moment we panicked. For 30 minutes we tried and tried with our not so great threading skills and techniques how we going to get a small cable 1mm in diameter.......through two holes 3mm in diameter...........through roughly 2 feet of frame length which we cannot see directly............and its 1.30am in the morning............and Interstate 2012 is 5 hours away.
We both sat down.................paused and thought for a while..................a really long long while....................
We did nothing for a good 5 minutes. Just think.
Suddenly my cousin asked................what material are the cables. I said stainless steel la.
He had an idea.............use magnet. He grabbed my sensor magnet and tested. The cables will stick to the magnet.
But through a 2-3mm thick carbon frame...........we need a stronger magnet.
Our plan : Thread the RD cable through the frame using strong magnets and get it out the hole so at least when we get the whole cable through...........we can re-thread the tube it. We will thread the cable out to the top end instead of the BB end because the hole at top is bigger and easier to see. But still............all this does not sound so easy at all.............not by an aeon easy...........................
We were desperate to get this solved or else I am without a rear RD control. I had the thought of just sticking the cable housing on the outside of the frame..........but who in their right mind will do that?
We needed more stronger magnets..........because for 20 minutes we struggled with just 1 magnet and 1 tiny hole and one small cable. Then suddenly I remembered, i have my alarm magnets in my car. A good few of them. I quickly went to my car and grabbed 3 of the strongest magnets.....brought it to the operation room.......and began..........fishing. For a cable. For another 20minutes we still struggled with the 3 magnets just to get it out the hole. Because of the funny position of the outlet hole, the cable would drop at some point and we have to start all over. We threaded the cable near to the whole.........then used the magnets to pull it right up to the position of the hole and tried to push it slowly through.
My cousin said it would be easier if we can see.......the BB is totally sealed by the aluminium housing and there are no holes to see through like some old school frames. Then we decided to try take out the fork......and see if the headtube has a hollow connection with the top and down tubes. We took out the fork we had worked on so much on..........and we can see finally the hollow tubes of the downtube and top tube. But its still a difficult angle to see as the cable outlet hole is further down the frame than the line of sight we can see. The RD cable can be seen........but bringing it up to the level of the outlet is difficult and keeps dropping......................but we tried and tried well into 2am.
Seems like a never ending drama eh?
We just kept trying.......and trying...........and trying..........................and trying....................................until my cousin suddenly shouted : STOP! WAIT!!!
He said he can see the cable in line with the hole. The magnets are holding the cable in place. While my hand was holding the bottom end of the cable. Now he asked me to push the cable. And i know if i messed up this chance...............it might not come again for a few hours..........so i pushed the cable millimeter by millimeter slowly. As long the magnets hold it and the cable goes straight and dont drop..................
"Push some more...............some more..................bit more............................more.................................."
I was really anxious now. How long more do i need to push? So i asked him is the cable out yet? He say it is but i dont see like its coming out despite my continuous slow pushing. This feels like a delicate brain surgery if you ask me.
Then suddenly he asked me "Dont MOVE. Hold the frame." while he gets something.............I was like really really really holding and keeping steady with all my life for this stupid situation to be done and over with. One hand is holding the frame. One hand is keeping the cable steady. Seems so close. Hope it doesnt go far away again. Then my cousin came back with a really tiny allen key and long nose pliers.
From the bottom side of the frame looking up and him using those two tools.........he looked like a doctor performing a heart bypass surgery for a moment. And then...........................................................
I see in the pliers.................................................the cable is out of the hole.....................................
I cannot tell you..................................................what relief............................................and what stupidity both of us felt doing this dumb procedure to solve this almost impossible problem for the last 1++hour or so.
Just for one small cable. For the whole Interstate.
We both just sat down.....................and took five. And looked at that cable dangling out from the hole.........threaded using magnets by two "smart" engineers. At 2.30am.
My cousin cursed and swear not to do internal cabling again. LOL!
I had nothing to say. I just wanted to get things over with. Now...........I really hope............this is the LAST STRAW because i dont see anything else that can or should be messing around with this frame setup anymore.............................. After a while we got back to work. And this time we take things one at a time. We re-thread the tube back through the frame successfully. And took out the cable because it was the wrong way in. Put it the right way in...........came out where it supposed to. I pulled out enough cable and THEN only we pulled out the tube. And i made sure one hand is holding the cable so it dont go back in that hole. Then i threaded it through the cable guide under the BB and through the next tube to the RD outlet at the back of the chainstay. Now i have a full length cable from front to back. And i can pull out the tube as well. We quickly tensioned the cable, checked and rechecked for sure that all is okay, and finally fastened it to the RD first to prevent another disaster.
Tested the shifting.......with some adjustments..........and now...........i have a working RD and gearing system. Big big BIG sigh of relief.
Then we worked on the FD cabling. Same procedure. And all was smooth this time. In no time we got all cables in and secured. Tested working............................................except still.......................the rear brake.
Back to this conundrum of an issue..........simply its a mix of a weirdly poor outlet design and too stiff of cable housing to work around with. Jagwires to be precise. Cutting these are a nightmare as compared to Shimano's Dura Ace cable housings which are super easy to cut. We both worked on this rear brake issue alone for another 20 minutes........cutting cables...........trying this and that way just to get my brakes to work properly. The original problem is that the cable housing was so stiff that when installed, it pushed my brake caliper to one side and doesnt make it easy to adjust and center the caliper. How to get a 1 1/2'' cable from the outlet to the brake caliper and make it work? Most frames have the outlet holes further in front so that at least 5" of cable can be out and flexible enough to make cables run without much friction or bends.
In the end we used like 1" of cable and a end cap loosely installed to make the darn thing work. It didnt look pretty but it works at least. And final brake pad adjusting. Front brake was not an issue. Straight forward.
And then the seatpost and saddle adjustments came last. That was just a simple thing
And now FINALLY! I have a bike. A supposedly working bike. I have yet to take it for a test spin. And its 3.30am in the morning.
My cousin went to bathe and just slumped on the couch drained and lack of sleep from helping me out. I myself am having a sleepless night from all of this. I took the bike out for a short spin and test ride. Testing brakes shifting etc etc. Everything seemed in order. And i hope it stays that way for 3 days because its going to be a tough 3 days....................and especially with this kind of last minute setup of a full bike at 3.30am with half sleepy eyes and a near blank mind. OK so i was satisfied with the bike. Now to give it a short cleaning and clean up the messy floor. Check all my gear for one final time and prepare stuff i need for the ride in like.............2.5hours. =.=
I can tell you....................................this was worse that last years incident because we are both still working until 3am. Last year......well..........although a predicament.........i wasnt really working. Just more like still resting and worrying. Which wasnt as bad. Didnt need brain power to rest. I got to sleep abit here and there. In the house. In the car.
Again i didnt bathe. Could not be bother with just 2.5 hours where i will be sweating and busting my legs again. After cleaning everything...........finally packed. Bike has a tag number. Bottles filled with water. Washed my dirty hands. I too finally slumped on the couch and too a short shut eye. Really short. Its like 3.50am now. And we both need to wake up by 5am or 5.30am latest.
So off to bed i went....................new frame done. That problem away from my mind. Now only how to ride 3 days Interstate with out training. Yes i didnt train...........again.
Good night for a while..............
-TBC-
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