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• #227
+1 for scraping with razor blade; makes it more difficult to damage the gel coat/underlying carbon, although it does take absolutely ages. A final clear coat will be required to prevent any contaminants from sneaking into the weave. Use something epoxy-based to minimise the risk of the clear disagreeing with the carbon resin.
The danger with sanding is that as soon as you see past the paint, it's easy sand through the gel coat and damage the outlying fibres without realising. The dust and sanding marks make it difficult to see the fibres once you reach them.EDIT: Posted five minutes too late.
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• #228
Smart place to start.
Was it fairly easy?
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• #229
Not too hard for the flat bits. I can see the dropouts and crown being annoying.
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• #230
can you not just sand the paint off with a real find grit and not go through the epoxy?
This build is looking good, shame you need to wait until September to race it. Will I be seeing you at Jackson Bridge in October?
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• #231
Yeah, I need to get some fine grades. Haha, not sure that I'll be up to National standards, I'll see how a few early season opens go.
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• #232
I think the razor method is meant to be faster and people say once you've got it mastered it's easier to make sure you just take the paint off.
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• #233
I would not have bothered with the razor blade stuff, but fair play to you. The fork will definitely look better, although if it's really just 10grams saved then surely the stickers should come off the frame too.
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• #234
This was more for aesthetics, weight saving is a bonus.
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• #235
Very pleased to sneak in under 500g. Cost me a pound to build for every year since the rim was produced. 7g/£ less than my old front.
HubJub also very kindly send me a 3/32 22t completely free of charge, so that's my Streatley Hill gear sorted.
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• #236
Avec all that out of saddle work on a fixed hill climb here's a classic article about wheel stiffness in case anyone missed it http://www.slowtwitch.com/Tech/Debunking_Wheel_Stiffness_3449.html
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• #237
Interesting article.
Why, then, don’t they use more spokes? Two words – fashion and weight. Fewer spokes look cool, and look better on-paper to the gram counters. I agreed to keep any official comments off-the-record from all manufacturers in this regard… but all of them had similar answers - sex sells.
Low spoke count is for the aeros no? 18 butted spokes are quicker than 20 bladed etc so spoke count clearly matters.
Thread hijack (maybe) over :-)
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• #238
I'd be curious to know once you go over 16 spokes radial spokes how many aeros difference there is between that and 28h.
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• #239
Are you sure 18 butted are faster than 20 bladed? I'd have thought the opposite.
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• #240
Actually I'm not sure. What I took away from the Zipp papers was that spoke shape and count weren't all that important once you're using 56mm 404 rims.
Shorter spokes innit.
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• #241
my current front wheel is has 20 radially laced spokes, and my last front wheel had 32 3 crossed spokes, and the 20 spoke is so much stiffer, the 32's used to rub the brakes like a MF.
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• #242
isn't that going to be as much a function of rim stiffness as anything else?
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• #243
Spoke tension, build quality
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• #244
And...
-Axle diameter and thickness
-Spoke count
-Number of spoke crossings
-Spoke thickness
-Spoke material
-Spoke type (j-bend or straight pull)
-Rim depth
-Rim width
-Rim material
-Fork leg stiffness and steerer tube diameter
-Chainstay and seatstay design
-Dropout alignmentSomeone should write an article on wheel stiffness :)
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• #245
Speedplay Ti axle upgrade, dead easy and highly recommended. 2.6g/£.
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• #246
Anodised Ti bolts for the pedal body are also available, but I think that might be a step too far.
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• #247
Are they strong enough?
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• #248
Replace the whole butterfly with alu. Actually, just glue your shoes to the pedal spindles like Obree..
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• #249
For me they are. I'll see if I bend them. Don't think alu is worth the cost tbh.
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• #250
Chain, cheapo Clarks 8spd. Probably should have gone for a slighty more expensive hollow pin version but this is light enough.
Got some tubs on the way, Vittoria Crono Evo CS and a Pista Evo CL. That's an ~300g combo, but I suspect that the Pista Evo CL is a tad too fragile even for the front so I'll probably only keep the Crono.
The devil makes work for idle razor blades...
Looks like there's a 10g(!) saving to be made.