WR and i have been geeking back and forth off-forum about what gear changes we may or may not prepare for on our fixed-gear extravaganze to los angeles in the AIDS life/cycle this june. over the course of that conversation, it came up that i’ve been needing DESPERATELY to replace some drivetrain parts on the Tumbler. the bare minumum i needed to do was to replace my chain, which was WAY past it’s lifespan, and to integrate the aluminum left-side BB cup that i’ve had around for like 6 months. but as we discussed gears and so on, i decided to change my whole drivetrain. one factor in this decision was that the cranks i use, white’s ENO crankset, requires significant financial expenditure and technical effort to change the chainwheel. a more common setup would allow for quicker, cheaper changes. and as it happened, a recent decision that WR made left a nice set of pake cranks around, and oh, hey, are those matte black? why yes they are! so i snapped those up from him, and today went around to the shops and in addition to that new chain i needed, i also picked up a SOMA fabrications 17t cog. i’d done the math and the 46t chainwheel that the new pakes came with, in conjunction with a 17t cog, would give me a gear inch that was right between what i rode on loos3y(tm) for years (70.2) and what i’ve been riding on the Tumbler since i built it (74.9). the final gear inch that the new combo would give me is 72.4. almost EXACTLY in the middle, in fact. and i love this not only because it pushes me further towards a good middleground of climb and mash (my 74.9 was great for mash, notsomuch for climb, where the old 70.2 was great for climb, notsomuch for mash), but it also bumped my skid patches up from 5 (!!!) to 17!!! that’s even more than i had on loos3y(tm)! so it was on.

first things first, and that’s a hoist up onto the brand new spin doctor bike stand that i got yesterday…

this stand will probably get it’s own review, but suffice it to say that it’s kickass. next, i needed to get all the tools and parts out…

orgPorn shot!

next step was to take all the old shit off. i put off to the side whatever was not being reused, and cleaned up whatever was. while i had the BB disassembled, i took the time to give that area of the frame a good cleaning, too, cause fuck it needed it after all this rain we’ve been having. then, armed with a clean palette and ready parts, i set to work.

first step, swap the cog…

god DAMN i love the look of those SOMA fabrications cogs. they’re plain black, zero texture, and branded nice and simply. the lockring obscures the branding, which i don’t care about one way or the other, but there you have it.

next step was to finally, FINALLY install that aluminum left-side BB cup i’ve had around. as you can see, the plastic one was WELL past it’s lifespan, with a huge crack in it…

so the new one…

went in…

complete with lots of phil on the INSIDE surface, where the free-floating end of the BB will rest. the reason i did this is because aluminum frames creak like a motherfucker at the BB, and i’m running some tests to see if i can solve it. the new chain is one test, the metal BB cup is another, but the greazing of the inside surface is yet another. i don’t know if it’ll work, but it can’t hurt, and i’ll provide further details as i ride it.

ok, moving along, i installed the new cranks…

fucking SWEET. matte black cranks on a matte black bike. oh, they look dreamy, don’t they? fuckin score, thanks again, WR.

after those were on, i just needed to install my new chain, and i’m pleased to say that i scored a black half-link BMX chain today unexpectedly. i have loved the look of half-link chains since i put that shadow conspiracy one on schwixie(tm) a while back. they just look so fucking mean and meaty. you pay a gram cost for these big ole BMX chains, but they’re fucking TOUGH, so i’m willing to do it.

have a look…

looks BALLER. cash money. ALL killer. NO filler. and having ridden one of those big ole motherfuckers for a long time, i can say with certainty that it’ll feel really good, too.

one unexpected benefit of this drivetrain upgrade was that my rear wheel now sits about a half-inch or so further forward in the drops. this is strictly an aesthetic benefit as far as i can tell — the only thing that a more forward axle gives you, to the best of my knowledge, is greater ease at doing wheelies, which i don’t do. but i like the way it looks. so that’s cool.

oh, another thing, i guess it was time to swap out my chainring anyway, cause look what i noticed after i got the old one all cleaned up…

i don’t know if you can see it in my crappy cameraPhone pic, but those teeth are all hammered. the metal is starting to bunch up and overlap. yeesh. i think i was pretty close to some broken chainring teeth, and i didn’t even know it!

now that all is said and done, my bike is already making less noise with today’s shoptime, and that’s all about the chain. when a chain gets old, it gets loose spots in it. so you sort of constantly have this loose-tight-loose-tight thing happening across all the teeth on your drivetrain, and it causes pinging and creaking noises to happen, even on non-aluminum bikes. so that’s a great change.

i haven’t ridden it yet, because i had a couple beers while i was working on it, so i’m not gonna have my test ride end in an ambulance ride. but i am riding to a super bowl party tomorrow, and i’m very much looking forward to breaking in the new drivetrain and really seeing what benefits, detriments, and adjustments it all causes.

but it was a GREAT day in the shop (my first actual project day in my new shop, in fact! cherry pop!), a significant upgrade to my favoritest bike ever, i got to use my new bike stand, i got some LONG-overdue maintenance taken care of, i made great strides towards being a better cyclist on the life/cycle, and i just had fun!

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