Originally Posted by bkgeig

Got the shifters installed and everything tuned up over the weekend. Here's a pic of the handlebar setup:


Took our first ride into school yesterday and the second this morning:


You can see in the pic above the pedal blocks I made for the back from 2x4s. I considered buying crank extenders, but they're $100 and my daughter will only need them for less than a year. After our first ride I turned up the rear handlebar so that she isn't so stretched out.

I've updated the build costs in post #4 . The total came in under $900. I still have a few small parts to buy and to sell, which should about cancel out, so I haven't included them.

According to my scale, the total weight was just a hair over 40lb with the wooden pedal blocks installed. Without them it would probably be around 38lb. So it's about the same weight as the stock bike. I suppose the added weight of the brake adapter and brakes offset the weight savings from the fork and cranks.

Some thoughts on the ride: First, my fit was way off. I expected to do some adjusting but not this much. I'm just under 6' tall (5'12" according to my wife) with a 32" inseam. I have the seatpost above the minimum insertion point to get comfortable leg extension. I also have the seat set as far back as possible on the post to get my knees over the pedals. One of my first purchases will be a 400mm post with more offset. The stem I had on hand is 110mm. It's way too long. I've ordered both a 80 and 90mm to see what's most comfortable. That should get me more comfortably placed and reduce some of the twitchiness I feel right now in the front end.

The tensioner I made is barely audible while riding. I don't notice it. As of now I plan to stick with 39t rings and maybe eventually go to 38t. We're in the lowest gear on our morning climb to school.

I'll try to remember to post some additional thoughts after we've ridden for a couple of weeks and I have the new stem installed.

Originally Posted by bobthib

I just did an upgrade on my brakes. I added standard road brakes,
Tektro R559 Road Brake Extra Long Reach Caliper 55-73mm



The Install went well, but did require some engineering. The stock short 5mm shoulder bold was not long enough to mount the rear brake. A medium 5mm shoulder bolt was required. In addition, the cross bar between the seat stays is meant for mounting a fender, so I had to drill out the hole on the seat tube side (1/4") to fit the shoulder bolt. To reinforce the shoulder, I added a 1/4" (8mm) stainless flat washer.

Adding these standard caliper brakes, along with the
Kool Stop MTB Mountain Bicycle Brake Shoes


the braking is far better than the stock brakes, or even the Avid 7s that I installed 5 yrs ago.

Next step will be to retro fit some 6703 Ultegra shifters and switch over to 10 spd cassette and derailers. Not in a big hurry. I have the shifters and cassette, need to pick up an 3 spd FD and 10 spd RD. Meanwhile I've got to see if I can disassemble the current Microshift Left shifter. It no longer shifts out of the granny gear, but since I'm in flat fla. and just riding with the grandkids, I really don't have much need for much gearing.

Originally Posted by bkgeig

Still loving the Giordano. I changed out the stem for higher rise, 16 degrees I think, and got a longer seatpost. The front rim brake squeals despite my toeing it out. I'm going to try a cheap brake booster next. During the summer we're mostly riding it on weekends for bagels/doughnuts. Here we are fully loaded on a morning bagel run.

Originally Posted by bkgeig

I just ordered an A2Z DM-UNI adapter from Wiggle. It was a little more than I had budgeted, but these things are getting harder to find, so I went ahead and picked one up while I could. If you look closely at my X01, you'll see I'm using a heavily modified A2Z to run discs on this old frame. I have had no trouble with it in 3 years of use and do check it regularly. I trust it for the tandem. I'll post some pics of the install when it arrives.

I hope to keep the total cost around $1000. If I can sell off some parts I think that's doable. I'm posting a JPG of the spreadsheet I'm keeping. I'll update the spreadsheet and the pic as I go.

Originally Posted by bkgeig

Hey Stephen. The type of bike isn't as important as the dropout style. I posted some other pics on forums.mtrb.com. I would search through the posts there to see what folks have done on a variety of bikes. You want to be comfortable with a grinder or dremel tool. Then go slow. Take a little material off, test fit, take more material off, repeat until it fits. I probably took too much off on the Trek commuter bike. Nonetheless, I've been using it daily for nearly 5 years of 10 mile commute.

Brian

Originally Posted by bkgeig

I measure the TT at just under 55cm and the ETT at 56cm.

Originally Posted by Bezalel

There's always the Trickstuff Exzentriker or the Phil Wood Philcentric. You can eliminate the need for a half link by changing timing rings.

Originally Posted by johnmc_76

I've seen the Trickstuff Exzentriker eccentric bottom bracket mentioned several times in the Giordano Viaggio threads, but can't find anywhere where someone actually tried one. I purchased a set of Truvativ Elita cranks for our Viaggio several years ago and never got around to putting them on. We've decided to swap the cranks this Winter, so I bought a Trickstuff Exzentriker to replace the front bottom bracket at the same time. Since the Truvativ cranks are 24/22mm, and the Trickstuff Exzentriker is made for 24mm Shimano cranks, I also bought a reducing shim for the non-drive side. Total cost, including the tool required to install it and shipping from Germany, was about $170. I'll post back once we've completed the upgrade.

Originally Posted by johnmc_76

We finally got the Trickstuff Exzentriker eccentric bottom bracket and Truvativ Elita cranks installed on our Viaggio this weekend, what a difference it makes. It's so much quieter without that little idler wheel chattering. It took a bit of fiddling to get it installed, but I think it was worth the effort. My wife/stoker wasn't feeling so well by the time we got it done, so I was only able to ride it up and down the street, solo. I'm really looking forward to going for a real ride with her in the near future. Here's a picture of the Exzentriker:

Any questions, fire away.