More mods and better measurement recording- I made a dial indicator clamp and set up for the lever/cable measurements. (While a lathe is a beautiful thing a mill is pretty cool too). The measurements are now far more reliable and "stupid free" (not completely but far nicer than making each shift cable movement with a hand held caliper). A couple of immediate observations. I had concerns about the block that is clamped to the cable causing droop in the cable which might add noise to the measurements. The dial holding clamp's V groove bottom (it's crotch) slightly touches the cable and adds some support/stability to the cable. I reversed the dial's pointer direction so its spring is, like the der dial pointer's spring, helps to overcome cable friction in the upshifting direction.
I recorded the Shimano Tiagra lever and Deore der on the charts I drew up. These charts are still a work in progress but are nicer to use and also help me keep track of the various steps to get a full range recorded. Nore that the numbers vary by very little per shift. Both at the lever/cable end and the der end. I only did two series, time and the very consistent results had me not bother with a third run. I'll get around to doing the rest of the math later but since it's not a Shimano lever I am wanting to work with this follow up isn't too important. I am impressed with how little scatter there is for the two series of measurements. Only a few thousandths of an inch most of the time between the two runs. It remains to be seen how the Campy lever measures up. I am rather happy with this at this point.
Next will be measuring a bunch of lever/der/Shiftmates. What might be called the boring part of a project. Andy
