Tinkering.

Been riding my road bike, lots, trying to make up for lost time - carefully - and get my legs back. Feeling somewhat slow and lumpy. And I've been tinkering with things. Notably my old ti Setavento frame with original Marin Rocky Ridge geometry.

Everything's Gone Ti...

It was just sitting there looking light and fast and redundant, so I singlespeeded it with the bits off the Wanga, which I've always liked but found a bit twitchy on the rocky stuff, particularly with its seized carbon seatpost set at optimum over-the-bar altitude...

Getting singlespeeded...

Thing is, I don't like singlespeed tensioners and the 'vento has vertical drop-outs. The answer turned out to be a Forward Components outboard eccentric bottom bracket. Made in Canada, it's HT2 compatible and gives around a half-link's worth of adjustability at the BB.

Slightly fiddly to set up, but it does what it says on the box and, thankfully, 32/17 on the 'vento turned out to be a near 'magic ratio'. Not sure how the bearings will last or if the 12 little set screws that hold the revolving eccentric bearing housings will stay in position, but it's neat and clean and once I'd adjusted the chainline to suit, does that magically smooth and quiet singlespeed thing quite pleasingly.

Getting new paint and some cable-guide modification...

Flipped the stem - Thomson upside down spells, erm - to lower the cockpit slightly and put a little more weight on the front wheel and I have to say, it looks quite nice, weighs around 23 and a half pounds with an old 130mm Revelation Air U-Turn and fattish, Peak-friendly tyres  and I'm kind of looking forward to riding it.

[I was? Hmmm... flipping the stem wasn't enough, this thing needs a lower front end, break out the alternative flat but wide bars with some sweep please. And a non-creaking head-set that works, I'd forgotten how grumpy that mark one Hope thing was... A slightly slacker Wanga might just be singlespeed better.]

A Slacker RC405?

Tinkering part two - ordered a custom angleset-type thing for the RC405 - idea is to slacken the head angle by 2˚ to make it a bit more Ragley like and stop me riding off the edge of the trail every time I swap bikes plus add some downhill stability. It'll drop the bottom bracket slightly and steepen the seat angle by a corresponding 2˚ as well - nominally that's 75˚, which is steep, proper front of saddle stuff, but it all depends on rear sag too and where the saddle sits on the post.

Getting slacker? Vroom...

I'm thinking it might allow a 150mm fork to work without screwing the climbing up, which is what it does as standard, and that I'll probably need a shorter stem, as per a Ragley. Hard to know exactly what the geometry will do. The Pace figures are all with a 130mm fork - 68.5˚ head angle, 73˚ seat tube I think - but I run a 140mm Pike, so slightly slacker and a fair bit of sag at the rear, so I figure the current effective geometry on the trail is a little slacker than Pace quotes to start with.

I guess it might all go horribly wrong, but if it does, hey, it's just a question of swapping back to the standard head-set again. And if it works, it'll be a trail-friendly, 130mm/150mm full susser with a slack front end for downs and a steep enough seat tube to keep things on track on the climbs...

Crossed fingers eh...