So, there’s few things as frustrating as wanting to ride, and weather and illness preventing it. They include death, disease, terrible loss, incarceration, injustice, poisoning, various offenses, decapitation, and so on. But barring those, it’s the one thing about a long storm that annoys. This isn’t North Dakota. I CAN actually have the reasonable expectation of getting rides in this time of year. So, if weather and illness prevent a ride, the next best thing is… a BIKE BUILD. Well, there are several next best things. But lets stay on message.
I had very little I could do at this point, since most of my parts are en route (selected, ordered, traveling by pack mule) with a few remaining to be selected based on sizing and other factors. But what I COULD do, at this stage, was some front end work.

The Cinelli x MASH frameset is made from Columbus aircraft aluminum somethingsomething and comes with a carbon form with an aluminum steerer. It ships with a Cinelli seatpost clamp and a Columbus branded, Campy compatible integrated headset. Now, Lung had a whole mess of problems sorting out his zero-stack headset on The Nameless Leader, and by whole mess of problems, I mean he asked a few LBS guys about his headset, learned the difference between integrated and zero-stack, installed with ease, then tole me. Anyway, I was home sick, it was pouring, and I wanted to get movin. So I regarded my headset.

The Columbus-branded headset that shipped with the frame (a nice bonus) is Campy standard, but you know standards. There are standards and there are standards. Anyway, immediately I noticed that what was in my possession looked different than some of the photos from Interbike and the subsequent launch promos for the frame.

See that bottom spacer? Do not haz. Now, this sent me into the sort of research spiral you might expect for someone who is:
a) sick
2) anal
d) measures thrice, drills once
And the like.

I went crazy. No install or literature on this headset anywhere. I looked at builds. I looked atthe MASH guys on TdC. I read Cinelli support documents (which was easy, since they were pretty much non-existent), I looked at Cinelli catalogs for 09 and 10. I saw that the headset appeared to change. I measured. I regarded. I contemplated.

In the end, it was far simpler than all that. I had feared I was missing that bottom spacer, and feared setting the race over the lip in the fork when it wasn’t supposed to. Lots of online references read to some variants of the IH where the race doesn’t set, but rests. But after all that dopery, it became clear that, as Lung attempted to convince me from across the country, I just needed to tap that race down and get on gettin’ on. I was kind of annoyed that all this literature shows ANOTHER headset WITH a spacer, and mine shipped without and with no data sheets. But hey, it’s better to be cautious first rather than trying to replace an effed up fork later.

I decided not to buy a crown race setter, so I took the fork over to my LBS, Tam Bikes, where Bryce tappity tapped that race down for me in like 3.3 seconds. One of the other wrenchers there was a fixie guy and knew my frame just from seeing the fork, which was pretty funny. I mean, Lung and I are the same way. He had a SWEET build-up of a Bianchi Super Pista (I don’t know the exact frame) and even ran the same wheels I’m using on this project. Pretty awesome.

So, it’s not much yet, but I popped the bearing rings on there, dropped the wedge in, and clamped the fork in place with some shop clips. I’m waiting for wheels, drivetrain etc before doing a sit test of the bike to verify stem angle and length, so I won’t have more progress on the front end for awhile.

Next up, brakes. I mean breaks.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: Crook Type 3 Conversion
2. Bike Build Process Log: Crook – Drilled, Comma, Fork!
3. Bike Build Process Log: Crook

2 Comments »

1. 

   I take it then that the odd lower race piece was a prior incarnation possibly, and that the smooth tight integration is the way it should be set up now.

   Comment by Guy — January 25, 2010 @ 19:48

2. 

   yep yep! Gotta love outdated promo material.
   The clearance assembled is just a few millimeters. Nice!

   Comment by wrongrobot — February 3, 2010 @ 17:42

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