Kuwahara klunker

Had a little bit of time to myself tonight.... It seems to be okay, but I haven’t given it a good yank yet.

Oh mate...

The tyres I’m replacing them with are the same size, just not as knobby.

Realised today that I’ll need to buy SS chainring bolts to convert the triple to a double.

Any ideas what BB axle width? I have no idea. Especially going from a triple to a double, but using the outer chainring position. I’m assuming it’d be a triple BB.

And I’m not sue whether I keep the blazing yellow Maxxis logos on the tyres either. Thinking of blacking the whole tyre out.

Is it that you know what the normal BB length is for that chainset but you need to work out what it would be, using it as a double? Should be -5mm in order to bring the chainline in by 2.5mm

Or do you need to find out what BB length that chainset needs? Try velobase - it often has BB length listed.

Also Maxxis logos on!

Went and bought some parts today.

No white brake cable outers or SS chainring bolts. Picked up a bottom bracket and 8 speed chain. Also bought shifter cables with white outers.

I guessed on the spindle width of the BB and got 113mm, same as my Bianchi. It’s too narrow. The granny gear chain ring bolts hit the frame. Thinking maybe 117mm-ish. No idea how I will measure. I dug around and came up with 4(!) 110mm BB’s AND another 113mm BB but nothing else. I’m sure I have a wider one, but don’t have the mental capacity to try and find it today. I did try Velobase and have been trying to do a visual search of my cranks on good, but it’s all over the place of what they actually are.

EDIT: I might try and install one of the 113mm ones with a couple of mm of spacers on the drive side between the cup and the frame (or the BB even not screwed all the way in) and put the cranks on. At least this way I can hopefully get a measurement of what width spindle I need. Reading online just now people have suggested using spacers from old cassettes, so I might try that. Note: This is purely to figure out what length spindle BB to buy. I’m not comfortable running a cartridge BB with spacers. Even a few mm.

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Well hopefully I have everything now.

Picked up this 117mm BB on a whim when I bought the brake cables. So much for measuring. 😅

I also bought some SS chainring bolts to convert the triple to double.

Hopefully I’ll find some time to put the BB tomorrow and the cranks will fit fine and everything in my life will somehow get easier as well.

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117mm will put the granny ring bolts 2mm further out than the 113mm, so sounds like it should be fine if they were only just hitting the frame?

That’s what I’m hoping!

Well the BB was 117.5mm. It’s a touch too narrow, but(!) it only hits on one chainring bolt.

Two options.

1. Add spacer between shell and cup. This will give me the clearance.
   
2. Try and find a flatter head chainring bolt, but my concern is it might still hit with frame flex.
   

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Well I yolo’d it.

2mm spacer gives me the clearance and the chainline seems fine. And I thought I’m probably just going to do this.

But then… this happened.

Need a lot wider that 119.5mm. Fuck.

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So, change of plans.

I have these Shimano STX cranks. They’re a bit more modern, but the q-factor is wider and there is no issues with crank arm clearance. By the looks of things I’ll be using a a BB that is a lot narrower.

I think once I swap the chainrings out, they’ll look fine.

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So I pulled the STX cranks apart. They’re weird. All the chainrings attach to the granny gear ring. The driveside is out of the question.

I have the DS Sugino Impel crank that is the same length and similar profile that I books use with the STX NDS. They are the same BCD as the STX as well. I’m sure I have the original rings somewhere too.

Or I could use the NDS STX and the original DS Sugino cranks, but I think spacing the BB will make the NDS hit the cup. 😔

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I know your pain, very frustrating.
I would just get a 122 of even 127 bb and use the cranks you like the most.

You probably did but... Did you check this?

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/bbsize.html?utm_content=cmp-true

Well 117.5mm BB is properly installed with no spacer. I seem to have just enough clearance with the granny gear chainring bolts. Hopefully the mismatched cranks don’t mess with the q-factor too much. The clearance between the chainstays and both cranks looks fine. No worse than my Bianchi.

What IS annoying is when I was looking at the other BB’s I had, the one packaged as a 113mm is actually a 118mm. No idea why it didn’t work with the cranks to begin with?

EDIT: Yes I’m missing a chainring bolt. I’ll sort that out this weekend.

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Yeah, but couldn’t determine the model of the Sugino cranks I have.

I’m hoping that I’m fine with the mismatch set up I have because it’ll allow me to run the double front derailleur on a triple crank.

I considered that, but I’ve already bought two BB’s this week! 😬

What IS annoying is when I was looking at the other BB’s I had, the one packaged as a 113mm is actually a 118mm. No idea why it didn’t work with the cranks to begin with?

Mismatch of tapers? The 118mm bb might even be asymmetrical? I once changed a 110 for a 113, cranks were in the exact same position as the extra length was all on the nds.

Yeah, no idea.

I was about to take the 117.5mm one out, but couldn’t be bothered for .5mm. I hate installing bottom brackets.

After all of this. I found this just now. It was in the stem bag on the Albini. No idea why I put in there. It’s 124mm. I think.

I may use it, but I’d like to see if I can get away with the narrower one for a better chainline.

And yes, that’s my daughter squeezing between my legs.

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So of course the day I’m at work it’s a lovely 18°C and sunny, and tomorrow it’s the weekend and going to be 14°C and raining.

I’m hoping tomorrow night I can get some nice dark beers, some time alone and finally finish this off.

I may also attempt to replace a spoke… but I’m not sure about attempting that right now.

I think I may have to chop the flanges of the grips slightly to make clearance for the shifters, like this:

Excellent project. Kuwahara are all the rage here, and I can see why.

Got home later than I expected tonight (I’m blaming my sister in law, but she’s also looking after my son, so I should be grateful), so didn’t achieve as much. I also discovered that I need more white brake outer (I thought it didn’t go the full length to the rear), rim tape and I figured I might as well buy a new cassette. I tried to do as much as I could tonight, but I was cold, tired and started getting tipsy.

Anyway, the front brake is cabled and set up, front tyre swapped out. The Dia Compe brakes are so easy to set up. Front and rear derailleur installed and up. It all seems to work well. Looks like I can get away with the Simplex front derailleur and my pseudo double crankset. I also like how it doesn’t cover the decal.

All that’s left to do is the new cassette, put rim tape and tyre on the rear, cable and set up rear brake, trim all the cables (have learnt not to do that until post-test ride) and then adjust everything

The Holy Rollers don’t look as good as the other tyres, but will be more practical. So. Much. Clearance. I’m also not sure about the double cages on the downtube. I am sold on the white cables. I think the black grips and saddle will offset it.

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