Thanks. Those look like a great comprise.

 

TT bike with Ultegra Di2 is built. Stuffed the BTR2 battery into the seat post with a bit of closed cell foam. Added the W-Fi widget and stuffed it into the DT so the Garmin 520 will show batt level and gear. P1 pedals and OEM wheels I'll use for training installed. Managed to clean up the cables pretty well. Nothing visible from the front. Used the brake levers with shifter buttons. Race wheels are a wide 88mm front and disc rear running tubeless clinchers.

Got a tri style water bottle that sits between the bars. Acts as a bit of a fairing so I'll probably run it even for 20k's. Still fiddling with position. Back is about 15° with current settings. I think I can get flat get more hours on it. First 20K is next weekend. Gonna hurt. Contemplating taking a trip to the low speed wind tunnel in San Diego once I've gotten comfortable on it.

 

^ I'll never have anything that awesome.



But this weekend is teardown weekend for ShitiBike (aka: Povertybike II, the Shitening). A clean, well-lubricated everything is a thing of beauty:






Serious question. For the plastic idler gears in the rear derailleur, what's the preferred lubricant on the sleeve bearings; a heavy grease, or a light oil? To their credit, I see only very minor signs of wear, and this is the first time I've opened them up, despite it being the third service for all of the ball bearings.



At my disposal, I have TriFlow (which is what I use on cables), ProLink (for the chain) and Park PPL-1 (my usual bearing grease.)



I really wish I had an odometer, so I knew how many miles I've put on this worthless department-store piece of crap over the past two years.

 

I like phil tenacious oil for idler pulley sleeve bushings. Its a med-thick oil that stays in place. Short of that i'd put a thin coat of park grease and run it.

 

I'd use graphite on those. Available as door lock lube from the auto parts places.

 

Light grease for jockey pulleys. Tenacious has a non-migrating (sticky) agent. Helps keep water out. Note, they may not be the same. The upper might be floating, slides side to side a few thousandths where lower does not. Maybe not, just check.

 

No difference in construction between the upper and lower. Measured 'em with the calipers, and they're identical. The physical construction of derailleur is such that the only thing holding the two halves together is the two bolts which pass through the cogs and clamp against the metal bearing sleeve. So side-to-side is also identical between them; zero on the sleeves, very near zero on the cogs. (Didn't feel like dragging out the dial gauge to measure assembled side-play, but it's essentially zero by feel.)

Park PPL-1 seemed too thick for a sleeve bearing. Wound up using TriFlow, which is thin but slippery as hell and seems to last forever on cables. I'll check on 'em again in a few weeks. If they're dry, I'll track down some Tenacious. We're just coming up on salt season, so this'll be a good test.

All together with new tires and tubes. Michelin discontinued the Pilot City tire, so I switched to their Protek Urban on 700x38. Yes, they're fat, because potholes, manhole covers, steel plates and drainage grates. Old rubber on right. They were great while they lasted, but just too many holes in 'em to keep at this point. Nothing like paying car-tire prices for a bike tire...






She ain't no TT bike, but she gets me around. Rare that I get to see it all clean and shiny.





Sidebar: Truing wheels would have been an effective punishment for deserting soldiers in WWII. **** spokes all to hell. Didn't break any, but god damn if I didn't spend every bit of two hours turning that damn tool. On the plus side, these have gotta be the straightest wheel on any department-store bike ever made now. Brake levers feel much better now.

 

Jeffbuc would have a stroke if he saw those fenders.

 

Jeffbuc's priorities and aesthetic preferences differ from mine, and I'm fine with that. When I ride through snow, I prefer to arrive at my destination with a dry backside.

 

First road race of the year and 14th out of 75. Almost happy with myself.

I got a ton of **** for riding hard up until the finish line:

There were spots to pick-up and points in the Texas Cup available for my team. There was a crash at 10-miles to go which split the pack and I lost three bros from my team so I was all alone among a few teams. I was hung-out in the wind so I went up front and jacked with the pace a bit, all hills for the last 10 miles, screwed-up and got trapped at the end, couldn't get out, but used the turn-lane everyone was avoiding to poach a few spots at the end. No one was nearby so it's not like I was creating a dangerous sittuation. Bros on another forum talked **** about me "sprinting for 10th" but that was hardly the case.

 

Boss wagon:

 

Kudos for Belgian Compact, Dura-Ace.

 

I was second guessing my decision for the 55x11. Our local TT has a big hill. Rode the course today and without going full gas, spun the 11 at about 120rpm for about 700m down the backside. Yah, the 55'll do.

 

As we say around here, around anyone who will listen, "55x11, regerts," or mid-climb, "I'm glad I brought the 42-tooth and not the 39."

 

Thought I'd share an amusing anecdote here.

During the course of my ride this morning, the water in my bidon froze.

 

refreshing!
lol

 

Camelback's insulated bottles will fix that. I love being able to put normal tap water in the bottle on a cold morning and drink ~50*F water instead of 35*F water after an hour on the bike.

 

35* water sounds amazing.

 

Eh. After pushing hard cold cold water just hurts to drink. 50-55* water seems to be the sweet spot. Some of my co-workers were saying something about an optimal temperature for the body as well, but I haven't done any research to corroborate that.