Third hand American wonders

Unless it's bent, or doesn't place the derailleur far enough away from the cassette, wouldn't it in theory work? From your photos it looks as though the outside of the hanger is level with the dropout, which is how all my hangers look. Do you think it could be bent, or placing the derailleur too close to the cassette?

Hard to say for sure, but this m2 stumpjumper hanger looks more quite similar to yours (and different to the steel stumpjumpers) - https://imgur.com/a/OHOZh1J

if i understood correctly it was slightly bent but they managed to straighten it. yet the indexing was affected somehow.

that does look exactly like mine which makes me think it's the original. i'm getting a new brake soon and can test the shifting properly on a longer ride.

1) if this indeed isn't the correct hanger, would it make sense to have one made that fits the
dropouts better?

looks incorrect, but i wouldn't. I'd just go with friction shifting. you get used to it. I use it on my touring bike and i like it a lot.

2) if it's the correct one but the metal has gotten tired along the years/from bending, would it make sense to buy a brand new replacement?

can't see how the aluminum would become tired. doesn't make sense to me. plus, I'd just go with friction shifting. you get used to it.

3) is it unlikely the hanger is causing any of this and i'd need to look at the other parts for the bottleneck?

looks like the wrong hanger to me and maybe that's placing the derailleur a little low. the distance from the top pulley to the cassette looks a little far by my eye. also the derailleur looks like it's been whacked a bit. sure it's not bent? the cassette looks new-ish. is the chain old-ish?

Anyway I'd just go with friction shifting for a few weeks. Partly because it's fun, but partly because if the friction shifting isn't working well with practice, then then indexing will definitely never work well.

been a while and time for some retrospective updates. the shakedown ride ended up being this bikepacking weekender to ivinghoe beacon i did with user @Qebrus in early march. we were supposed to do a three-day ride but bailed the off-road day as it was still miserably wet and muddy. was still good fun and the bike performed surprisingly well.

the setup is far from dialled but the bike carried the weight really well. the potential clearly is there. the only issue was the cockpit, which is still too tight for the smashing down the hill luscious locks flowing ron stance. this should be sorted by swapping in a longer stem. normally i'd resist anything longer than 100mm, but with the low trail fork the longer the better.

i was a bit dubious about leaving the revelate sweetroll out as the sleeping system bag and using just saddlebags front and rear for that tetsuo ehara cool, but they served well. there was ample room for food suggesting an unsupported three-nighter would've been fully possible. it should get even easier after i manage to upgrade the old scout shelter to a big agnes and get a neoair xlite.

the 11-42 sorted all the climbs, albeit they were mostly road ones. thanks to the humble efforts in weenieing the bike was fun to shred fully loaded. going with alu over steel paid off here i think. haters will say it's stiff but the 48b tubeless herses help with that. the wider q factor didn't feel like an issue either but i missed my holdfast-strapped pedals a bit.

will try to reveal some other upgrades soon.

Bailing the off road portion because of poor conditions is de rigeur I believe.

after the longest ever eight weeks susan's letter has finally hit the shores. a full pack of ink transfer decals.

the initial plan was to just sandblast and clearcoat, keep it agricultural to deter thieves. a sensible person would do no more for a commuter against winter. it's had seattube replaced so something needs to be done as one can see from the photo above. while waiting for the decals the brainworms have gotten me and all of the sudden it feels appropriate to powdercoat it purple?

the question is does 853 survive a winter with clearcoat only or am i forced to powdercoat to avoid rust damage? can any paint shop handle ink transfer decals or do i need to turn into a bike specialist?

also, as the pictured easton fork clears only 28s i'm on the hunt for a light steel option preferably with mounts for a lowrider rack and guards. something that clears at least 32s, why not 35s. the sub 800g columbus i was selling here was perfect but sadly lacked steerer.

Nothing except stainless will remain rust-free for long with just clearcoat. You’d need to get it phosphate-dipped first, then clear powdered.

Steve at Aurum Finishing will sort you out; he does Stayer’s ‘raw’ finish.

I had my Varonha clear coated, but not by Steve @Aurum, it's not lasted particularly well.
Winston has started using Steve for his powder coating now, thankfully!

thanks, will check with steve. seems he can do it for much less than i thought so there isn't really a reason to not powdercoat.

I do enjoy following your projects :-)

With steve do you talk to him direct or is it easiest to deal with one of the shops that send him stuff?

thanks, am humbled! i spied from the paint thread he's best contacted through clever mike's.

He's just terrible at emails. He's best contacted by phone at which point he'll just say yeah send it in with a note on it with the details.

If you don't want to post, he sometimes collects for £20ish or take it to one of the shops he regularly visits

I dropped off my frame with my name, phone number, and ral codes at Clever Mike. Steve picks up from them and I paid Clever Mike on pick up. Really easy and straightforward.

steve has now picked up the frame and it's being painted. should be ready next week. ended up going with a slightly darker tone of purple with a touch of sparkle in it. the regular RAL tones were a bit too "i'm sorry i exist" for my liking, but luckily he also offered some more vibrant powderfx.co.uk colours too. this is mostly to rust-proof the frame, was never a fan of repainting but don't think i really have a choice here as the tubing is thin.

after messing around with some bootleg igleheart options for the fork, i came to my senses and grabbed the pioggia steel edition from condor . it matches pretty closely to the indy fab original both by specs and aesthetics. it's not the lightest but should be well-suited for commuting and lugging the groceries, perhaps even touring at some point. been really happy with how my other tange infinity fork rides.

frameset is now back from aurum and vaz, having received the best of both (paint) worlds treatment. it's hard to fathom the transformative power of painting before seeing the results in flesh.

per mario's report the decals were just as tricky to get on as IF's chris warned over email. he apparently had to heat each tube separately to make them stick without cracking. the outcome is clearly superior to traditional sticker decals though. i've never bought a factory new bike but i'd imagine this is how it looks like.

didn't have time to go outside to catch the sun properly, but a little teaser taken when the rays hit it favourably earlier today here. as the highly clicheic saying goes, the sparkle really comes to life in the sun lol

Gr9 colour m9. Bet you’re well pleased with that!

Looks great already!

Exciting!

Lovely color, moar pics pls

was already looking for a new fixed aperture lens for my dslr, but these are still with an iphone. managed to run out during my lunchbreak only minutes before the sun set.

it's funny how it appears as a less enthusing blue in flat light, while the sun not only brings out the glitter but also changes the tone completely. hoping for sunny days i guess.

the rest of the parts are on order but royal snail is taking its time. don't blame the strikers though. had a crush on these paragon machine works downtube barrel adjusters on paceline, but was put off by their $50 postage costs. luckily donhou had some domestic stock.

The Indy fab looks fab-ulous. Choose paint for the weather you want not the weather you’ll get imo hehe

Any updates?

the radio silence has been on mostly because the delivery of a new lens for my dslr for taking better photos of the projects got majorly delayed. royal snail took almost a month. miraculously, i took the delivery of it today. photos hopefully coming soon.

the bike itself has been built and it rides beautifully as expected. the steerer just hasn't been cut, which makes it less photogenic. i'm currently at the 'vigorously buying stems of different length and angle' stage.

the spare shimano freehub i had bought for the old tune to convert out of the cronchy campag cassette didn't fit. i'd need the red version which fits the mag 180, the blue one i tried only fits the newer mag 170 and 150 series. upon emailing tune themselves regarding the matter i was advised they don't have these anymore and offered discount on a new hub. might still do some more emailing with retailers who've sold the hub. feel free to reach out if you have one...

the condor fork is functionally sound but somehow sticks out quite a lot, as in there's a gap between the lower edge of the headset and the upper part of the crown. i've been advised this could be resolved with a certain special ck crown race.

a proper ride feel report should be coming soon too. already feel like getting the reynolds 853 emblem tattooed... ...as a tramp stamp like this:

this is how the gap looks like in case anyone has ideas…

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Original bearing? Don't see how a crown race would help. The bearing sits flush in the cup when off the bike?