quindecima

I'm in Oregon so i'm subject to hills every now and then, At my age I need every little bit of help I can get to keep the ambulance from coming.

70sSanO

Well now you’ve changed the subject. You need to see what the current lowest ratio is on your current bike and go from there. If it is 42-28 and you have no issues with hills, then a 34-28/30 should not be a problem for the foreseeable future.

Howevet, I would get a rear derailleur that goes to 34t so that if one day the 34/28 is a little too tall you can swap out the cassette.

John

Edit added: This does open up the large/outer ring size. You need to figure out how much top end you need. With hills, what do you need. I’ve always felt that an 11 speed is great with a 1x so I would try to maximize the use I could get out of the large ring.

If my normal spin-out works with a 42t or 44t I’d reduce chain wrap and go that route. But I’m a relic and have no idea what 11 speed chainrings are out there. Just because a ring ratio works best doesn’t mean it exists.

quindecima

Here's what it looks like I have now, I may be a little off, my bike is hanging upside down in the garage. Low gear seems pretty low. 48/37/29 and 30/26/22/20/16/12 for the casette. What do you think, will I be good with the new setup?

70sSanO

It all depends on how well your 29/30 works. If you don't ever use it, you can probably get away with a 34-30. If you use it on a climb on nearly every ride, then you may want to go with a 11-34 cassette, so you will have a 34-34, which is probably close enough. If you need something a little lower than 29-30, then the fun begins as you will probably need to go a MTB cassette like an 11-36. If need something a lot lower, maybe a RoadLink which is a tough way to start a new build.

I would think that a long cage road derailleur rated for 34t would go to 36t.

The other end is the 50-11. Right now you are at 4:1 with your 48-12. If you are using that combo a lot, the 50t might be fine. The biggest question is whether you ride in your 48t or 37t most of the time. If you are in the 37t the majority of the time, then it might be worth your effort to go to a smaller outer chain ring and keep your 4:1 but make it more usable.

You are never going to get to your 37-30 ratio from the outer ring of your new setup, plus you will have a pretty severe cross-chaining, you might be able to mitigate it a little by fiddling with your chainline.

At this point others can chime in with what 11speed compatible outer chainring will fit your setup. Personally, if you are at 48t now, 46t, or possibly less, might be a good way to go.

I would think that trying to find a ring that will keep you in the outer ring for 75% of your rides would be good.

John

quindecima

Look what I got in the mail today!

70sSanO

Nice!

John

quindecima

O.K. so I need help with the assembly of the fork. It is threadless with a Star nut that goes into the fork. How do I determine how high to cut the fork? BTW the owners manual is useless.

icemilkcoffee 

That depends how high you want to mount your stem (ie. How many spacers you want to put under your stem)
that’s the reason why they leave the fork tube uncut.

quindecima

O.K. How can I determine that when I can't mount any wheels yet?

70sSanO

You don’t. At least not yet.

You get a headset and then take the frame to a shop to make sure the head tube and bottom bracket shell are faced parallel and then have them press in the bottom bracket and headset cups/crown race.

Then you get the rest of your parts. There may have a few stragglers, but you don’t build based on what FedEx happens to deliver that day.

John

alcjphil

+1
Once a fork has been cut you cannot lengthen the steer tube safely. Don't get ahead of yourself

quindecima

O.K. I have taken the frame to the Bike shop. They are going to install it so I do not screw it up. I can install the BB myself. I test fitted the drive side and it slides in pretty nicely, I have a tool coming and can thread that on. it is a 386EVO Wheels Mfg,.

quindecima

Frame is back already. Now wheels, I'll do the BB later.

quindecima

The spacing on my rear is 138.71mm. Do I need a 135mm hub or 142mm? There seems to be enough movement for either one.

zacster

Why rush the wheels? You aren't going anywhere. The wheels are unconnected to the other parts of the bike. You need a crank, derailleurs, brakes, saddle, bars, shifters, cables, bar tape...

quindecima

I'm not rushing, trying to get it up where I can work on it easily, I have some of the other stuff. Knowing what the rear spacing is will be pretty crucial if something pops up, I'm thinking its 142 because then the thru axle will not be 1/2 to 3/4 out the other side of the frame. I can't install the derailleurs, brakes, shifters, cables until the wheels are on.

quindecima

O.K. According to the distributor the rears are 142 so it's what I thought. I also found these, any input?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Alex-Rims-7...oAAOSwA7Jegmnh

70sSanO

I’m probably not the best person to recommend wheels, but it would be a cold day before I would buy unidentified Alex rims with unidentified Shimano hubs.

Not saying you should buy this one, but it is a wheelset you can actually research:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/DT-R500-Dis...53.m1438.l2649

They are both from Velomine, who typically will provide weights, unless....

John

quindecima

I have those under consideration also. The wheels from Alex are RS 470

quindecima

O.K. so I got the pair mentioned by 70sSanO. now I need tires, I'm just going to be riding on pavement 99% of the time but I want a good set what is the forum consensus?

70sSanO

I do hope the wheels work out. They seem to have decent hubs and disc only rims which, in theory, are lighter than the same rim brake rim since there is no brake track. There can always be arguments about the number of spokes and the weight of the wheelset. I don't have experience with 142 disc wheels to know where 2100 grams fits for general riding. Obviously less weight further from the hub makes more impact than weight in the hub.

One thing I recommend is to check the hubs bearing adjustment when you get the wheels. I do this with every set I have purchased since poorly adjusted cup/cones will ruin the hubs. From what I gather the process is the same for thru axles as it is for QR. I've done a lot of cup/cone, but if you have not, you may want to have a shop make sure they are setup correctly. Done right, hubs can last a very long time.

John

quindecima

O.K. I will do that when they get here. BTW How large of tire can I safely run on that rim?

70sSanO

I'm probably wrong person to ask as I'm running 2" wide tires on 14mm and 17mm wide rims.

That said, it depends on the frame as to the tire width that it will accept. Being a gravel type bike, and rims tubeless ready so you're less likely to pop a bead, I imagine 40mm would work fine on 22mm. If it is strictly road, then I probably wouldn't go past 32mm; but that's me and I'm still running 25mm on my 23mm road bike rims. Then again, I have no options to go any bigger on my frame.

John

quindecima

Can I run Conti Gatorskins on the rims I got? The rims are tubeless but I cannot find out if the gatorskins come in tubeless or if it matters.

quindecima

So my rims got here yesterday and I notice that stems holes are for the skinny stems, is there a reason for that or can I just have them drilled out for the schrader valves?