OK, the bike is “assembled” now, really only still needing a water bottle and cage; that said, I need to go over the bike 100% (and then some) making sure every bolt is tight and correctly adjusted. In particular, the headset is just finger tight. After that, it needs at least two shakedown rides with tightness checks in between.
Sadly, the batteries in my household scale have died, so I cannot give even a ballpark weight. Nice enough components but it is straight-gauge tubing, and a 25” frame as well. Probably approaching 25 pounds? Then again, that might be pessimistic.
A couple of things:
(a) No surprise but going from 27” wheels to 700C means brake reach is affected and even in the bottom position, not QUITE enough reach. Therefore, a little grinding of the caliper is in order; sure, it would stop right now, but how many stops until tire blows? And there are tire savers installed and getting the brake perfectly centered and tight while preventing the tire savers from doing
Rock Around the Clock is not easy — at least on the rear; on the front the center bolt was long enough for
two NyLock nuts (M6 x1mm, by the way, cheap from Amazon in stainless in packs), one of which holds the brake and the second for the tire saver.
(b) First time dealing with barcons in so many decades. After the rebuild the SunTour shifters seem to work really well — but the cable routing strikes me as really inelegant, I have a clip holding the cables together below the handlebars, and I still need a zip-tie directly above the housing stop on the downtube to keep the cables from drooping. Moreover, the shift cable housing comes rather close to the front brake’s straddle cable assembly. Is there a fix?
(c) there is also a zip tie on the chain stay just aft of the housing stop for the rear derailleur. The ‘modern’ housing is a bit stiffer than I am used to and wants to exit the stop at an angle. I am hoping it settles into its new shape and the zip tie becomes superfluous. Or — last year member “oneclick” made up some special ferrules that fit my Raleigh project perfectly for this exact reason, I think I still have one or more in my “cables and small parts” box.
