As you understand, I lately discovered myself in receipt of a Shock Marinoni:
It was clearly a really wonderful bicycle, but it surely required an overhaul:
Moreover needing cables and tape and brake hoods and the standard stuff an outdated bike wants, the drivetrain was in a sophisticated state of damage, as a result of which it was tough to establish the precise situation of the shifters. Furthermore, Campagnolo has way back deserted 8-speed like an illegitimate youngster, and as such it’s simply concerning the least-supported drivetrain in existence. So I had a call to make: do I stick to the evolutionary useless finish that’s 8-speed Campy and hope all of it works, or do I simply begin from scratch with both Shimano STI or downtube shifters? Finally, I opted for the previous within the hope that these basic pointy-topped Ergos nonetheless had some life in them.
Yesterday’s climate was positively pleasant. Nonetheless, I opted to remain in and work on the ‘Noner moderately than go for a experience. Having simply recovered from a bout of what I believe might have been meals poisoning (however which additionally may have been extended publicity to roadies and/or Spinergys), I figured resting and tinkering as a substitute of driving was a clever alternative; nevertheless, on reflection, a experience would in all probability have been far much less taxing. In any occasion, within the spirit of optimism that naturally accompanies with the ability to stand and maintain down meals once more, I laid out my substitute elements and set to work:
Naturally I began by stripping the mummified cockpit:
And de-cabling the shifters and brakes:
I stay in any case these years a awful bicycle mechanic, however I’ve nonetheless managed to study a couple of classes alongside the way in which. Considered one of them is to to all the time take an image of the place the cables go:
Although it’s normally pretty apparent, it by no means hurts to have a reference while you’re placing in new ones:
One other is to all the time use shitloads of grease on all fittings:
This will prevent plenty of hassle in a while–like while you discover your ferrules have seized in your cable stops:
I used to be not stunned to search out this was the case on the ‘Noner:
Fortuitously I used to be in a position to faucet them out with out an excessive amount of issue:
Additionally seized had been the adjusters on the downtube cable stops:
I couldn’t get the one on the proper transferring, and I couldn’t get the cable out of the one on the left in any respect, so finally I simply changed them each.
With the cockpit lastly stripped…
…I gave the shifters a lube bathtub:
First I hit them with some Liquid Wrench, then I adopted up with some Tri-Circulation. I used to be fully winging it right here and don’t know whether or not or not this strategy was prudent. In truth, in line with the consultants, it was precisely the improper factor to do:
Nonetheless, I’ll by no means truly rebuild these items for the reason that elements are not out there, and so they appear to run by the clicks properly post-spritz, so possibly I’ll get fortunate.
This was to not be an atomic-level overhaul–given the general situation of the bike I wasn’t going to fully flush each bearing on the bike or something like that–however I did determine I would as properly open up the headset and stick a bit of extra grease in there:
In order that’s what I did:
I additionally pulled the crank and the underside bracket (English threads, in case you had been questioning):
I’d observed a little bit of play in the proper crankarm the final time I rode the bike, so I hoped the taper wasn’t broken. With the underside bracket cartridge out I additionally famous that the spindle ran a bit of tough. Then there have been the chainrings, which had been visibly worn. Since I didn’t have spare rings or a spare backside bracket for this crank I thought of simply changing the entire thing since I had one other crank and backside bracket that may work simply wonderful, however once more, given the general situation of the bike I figured I would as properly simply put all of it again on and hope I can squeeze a bit of extra life out out it:
Once you’re engaged on a motorcycle it’s all the time the seemingly easy stuff that finally ends up taking essentially the most time. Like, given the situation of the bike I totally anticipated having to wrestle eternally to get the underside bracket out or one thing like that, however I simply assumed the cassette swap would solely take a couple of minutes. This was not the case:
Firstly, the cassette got here out of the field all unfastened, which was not a great signal. Secondly, placing the cogs on is basically annoying, since whereas 8-speed Campagnolo is kind of like Hyperglide in that the splines are irregular so you may solely put the cog on a method, the irregularity is form of onerous to see so you find yourself making an attempt to place every cog on like 5 instances till you lastly get it. After all Campagnolo finally modified this by transferring to this deranged spline sample, which I additionally discover confounding as a result of it’s too irregular:
Then once more neither my eyesight nor my coordination are what they as soon as had been.
Then as soon as I obtained the cogs all on I discovered the lockring didn’t fairly appear to have interaction that properly with the Campy lockring software, so I simply switched to the Campy lockring, solely to search out that when tightened the entire cassette was nonetheless unfastened on the freehub physique. Figuring I should have missed a spacer, I discovered one other skinny one within the field, but it surely didn’t fairly match onto the freehub physique–prefer it was a half a hair too small in diameter. Possibly it suits a Miche hub? I dunno, but it surely was at this level I started to surprise if the cassette was unfastened within the field as a result of somebody had returned it in disgust.
Fishing by my drawers of crap, I attempted to discover a spacer that may match, however I got here up with nothing. So then I attempted the brand new cogs with the spacers from the outdated Campy cassette, simply in case, however that didn’t work both. By this time I’d put the cassette on like three or 4 instances, clumsily jigsaw-puzzling every cog on one by one, and lemme let you know with eight cogs that actually begins so as to add up. So lastly I took a spacer from an outdated Shimano cassette, caught it between the small cog and the lockring the place it wouldn’t have to suit over the precise freehub physique, and that appeared to do it:
The cassette appears to be cosy and regardless of the additional width the lockring clears the body, so hopefully that solves the issue:
It was at this level I used to be pressured to confess to myself I used to be not going to get the bike overhauled in a single session, so after reinstalling the cranks I hung up the ‘Noner for an additional day.
To be continued.
