Jimalex’s 853 Crust Romanceur

Drivetrain shaping up.

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The Chris King is in place as hoped

what did you do? chop steerer?

Get ready for an Instagram-style drip feed reveal!

We’re on tenterhooks here...

The machinist worked some magic. 🌟

Fettling continues. Will post some snaps of the headset and other details when they’re finished which should be tomorrow or Weds.

Here’s an in-progress shot in the meantime. 🙂

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And one from The Tower on Leith Hill just now before the heavens opened.

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Looking forward to the full build reveal - and some closeups of the headset fix

As always the final stages of the build threw up some challenges.

The compressionless housing that comes with the Yokozuna brakes was too wide for the frame’s internal routing, so was replaced with Odyssey outers.

The standard Shimano 11 speed chain was 2 links short of being able to work with the 38x50 granny gear, so a Frankenchain had to be assembled.

Despite my best efforts at positive thinking, the pair of left hand 600 levers looked daft and felt awkward so I’ve replaced them with a glossy black pair of Rival levers which sit great with the Shaka bar and transition really nicely from the flats to the hoods.

Just has time for a little spin tonight and hope for a proper ride and some pics tomorrow.

the anticipation is at fever pitch

Here’s how the headset worked out. I’m pretty stoked on it.

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A few more...

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Tease!

I was expecting microshift

Didn't like the Yokozuna housing?

Ah too wide. Yeah it doesn't like bends either.

Nice! Appreciate the perseverance.

Did you get the top nut machined in the end?

Chomping at the bit for the full reveal.

@ectoplasmosis Yep went with the first plan of reaming the interior diameter of the Chris King top nut. This was only the top flat surface of the nut so I didn’t have to mess with the threads in any way - just remove a mm or so of material to allow the CK top cap to pass over the steerer tube and screw into the lower section of the headset as intended. Then 10mm of spacers and final top cap to finish. This gives me more stem height if I need it, stiffens things up a bit (it’s still super flexy), and I think it looks better than just having a very tall quill.

Now get to the exposé!

Looks very nice!

Why the derailleur pulley? Thought you were using bar end shifters?

Guess it's indexed?

Thank you everyone for the kind words along the way...

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Wowzers !

@Tijs Couldn’t get the bar ends to play nicely with the XT mech without it, even in friction mode. All my research indicated that shouldn’t be the case, and I have older Shimano bar end shifters working nicely with an LX mech on my touring bike. In the future I may try again without the pulley but it’s working great now so I’m happy.

More details...

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