The making of Skinny Bitchykal

A rather hilarious dialogue when Hitler ask those roadie to
leave the room.

"Those of you that have been riding your skinny tire sissy bikes with you gay shaved legs, get out. Now." - Hitler in Hitler
movie.

Having said that, I was building up a road bike and about to become a roadie myself.  Minus the gay shaved legs.

The making of Skinny Bitch

Day 1

1. From bare frame, fit the headset & fork.

2. Fitted brake caliper, wheelset (not yet service), crankset, FD, RD, seatpost saddle, handlebar & brake/shifter lever.

3. Fitted the brake cables

Day 2

1. Serviced rear hub, apply new grease.

Issues

1. Fitted shifter cables. Harsh shifting for FD. RD shifting doesn't work

2. Steerer tube too short.

The sludge

Loose bearing of rear hub

New grease

A handle too low for a road bike

Day 3

1. Fixed my boo boo previous day causing the RD didn't shift.

2. Bianchi fork replaced with Trigon.

Issue

From 1" steerer tube to 1 1/8" thus cannot use Deda 1" stem.

Probably need new complete headset.

Going for 1 1/8" from 1" steerer tube.

Day 4

1. Fitted stem from Shogun

2. Fitted chain

3. Fitted worn shifter hood

4. RD/FD tuning

5. Test run on trainer

Shifting test run on a trainer

Day 5

On the road test by Shaque, Zali & Pak Abas.

1. Adjusted saddle height, saddle to stem length, saddle angle.

Issues need to be addessed

1. On large cog (cassette), spokes are slapping the RD's cage. Need spacer on freehub

2. A little freeplay on crank due to BB. Will replace with spare BB.

3. A little short cable casing for rear brake. Will replace

4. FD need more tuning.

5. Tire desperately need replacement.

Day 6
Fixed the following.

1. Replace BB with Ultegra

2. Spacer on freehub didn't work. The smallest cog can't firmly engage on freehub's spline. Solution: shorten the chain by 1 link resulted RD's cage extended lower than before and better clearance from spokes.

3. Replaced rear brake cable casing.

4. FD tuned, still can't get the perfection.

Day 7

Skinny Babe test rides Skinny Bitch

Day 10

My first attempt to fit a bartape.

Day 14

Test ride to HOA, Gombak.

RTW - Oppss.. I did it again!

This is my third day RTW (Rides To Work, a term coined by Akmal or maybe BC. Damn, am I that old to recall this?) for this week. I locked my bike to a pole only to realize that it was securely locked but not to a pole! This wasn't the first time and in 1 different occasions, I left the key on the bike.

Sigh... I am getting older and become more forgetful.

Raya rides

Rides that took place during long raya holiday...

All photos are from Raya rides.

Langkap-Teluk Intan

Distance:40km

Singlespeed Spesh first timer

Mastan Ghani's new outlet

In front of Mastan Ghani at Taman Ros, Teluk Intan

The famous Mastan Ghani's mee kari

Langkap-Bidor-Tapah loop

Distance:70km

Teh tarik break at Tapah town

Changing flat tire at Tapah Road

Langkap-Chenderung Balai recovery

Distance:20km

Spesh on the floodgate at Chenderung Balai

Common sight at Sungai Batang Padang

Spesh SingleSpeed

From SS Spesh photoshoot

After selling many Spesh's parts to a friend for building her bike, Spesh was left idle and collecting dust. My initial intention was to sell it off, but after much consideration I decided to make a second attempt to SingleSpeed it. There was another attempt on singlespeed Shogun which ended me with hard fall and a broken helmet. There are 2 most important element of singlespeeding your bike; 1. chain line, 2. chain tension.

First attempt about a year ago.

Cog taken from Deore cassette, sandwiched between 2 larger cogs. Make use old Tourney Rear Derailer as chain tensioner. Note the straight chain line of cog and chainring.

I found this Da Bomb 9 to 1 Pro conversion kit for freehub body (RM65,BicycleWorld, Tmn Melawati) that comes with 18t and 16t cog.

It was 2 strikes of luck when: -

1. pretty straight chain line

2. the chain tension was sufficient on 42t chainring without the need of chain tensioner.

42:16 gear ratio suits me well on flat tarmac. Come the hill, I'll do it standing.

Addendum (05 Oct 2009)

Parts for my singlespeeding project.

1. Complete MTB minus gearing system (FD, RD, Shifters)

2. 42T Shimano Exage crank (est. RM50)

3. Da Bomb 9 to 1 Pro conversion kit (RM65)

4. 7 speed chain (est. RM20)

more on singlespeeding on MTBR here