As Easy as One, Two Zee...Well, not quite ...

Braking up to scratch and headset buttery smooth, the UN55 bottom bracket was showing the early signs of slop. Nothing serious but seeing as I already had a UN300 on standby and time allowed, rude not to replace. All was going to plan until I put a shot of lube on the tool threads and coupled it with the cranks.  

I was rather shocked to discover them flaking away.  Thankfully, popping them from the tapers wasn’t a hardship and no surprise the bottom bracket spun free with comparable ease, thanks to my policy of liberally greasing threads and of course, oceans of frame preserve... Time to investigate my transmission box...  

Enter the Shimano Zee and 36 tooth ring, compatible bottom bracket, Acor tools and some of the Corrosion Block grease, since it was to hand. Now, I’d bought the Zee blind. Other than acknowledging that it was new, unused, and priced to sell, I didn’t think to check the axle length... It’s not the most obvious choice perhaps, given it's intended for freeride and downhill audiences. However, it's solid and in my view, quite pretty.  

Hollow Tech II basically works to the same compression principle as Aheadset. Set the bearing preload hand tight, test for play and good movement, then gently snug the pinch bolts down to 14nms (alternating between them, to ensure equal loading and avoid damage caused by over-stressed components).  

Being as the cranks provide the compression, if I was going to run the system successfully (without the bearings constantly coming loose) I needed to plug this. One-inch Aheadset spacers seemed the obvious solution. Rummaging through my small parts toolbox proved fruitful.  

While there’s a lot to like about the Shimano Hollowtech II bottom bracket (and their bottom brackets, per se), I wasn’t taken with the plastic sleeve, so found myself upgrading to a titanium Van Nicholas VNT Ceramic Bottom Bracket. This has a titanium, rather than composite sleeve, so engaged very precisely within the frame shell.  

Essentially everything came together beautifully, although I was quick to apply a liberal helping of suitable grease to the threads, shaft and bearings. Always a good policy but there was no way I was going to run the galvanic gauntlet for the sake of a couple of minutes. Having exhausted the Corrosion Block, I went for the Green Oil Eco GreaseTWELVE MONTH TEST: GREEN OIL ECO GREASE (sevendaycyclist.com). It might lack the outright stoicism of Park and similar but nonetheless, it’s a solid middleweight performer.  

Being several degrees below zero, it emerged from the spout in a more solid state than some petrochemicals but malleable. Thus far, this present configuration is proving very satisfactory. Chain line is bang on and I’m not pedaling like John Wayne. Just as well since pandemic and Brexit is beginning to bite in terms of acquiring suitable replacements e.g. Deore and at sensible prices.  The UK is a third country now, so importing from Europe would incur punitive import costs. In essence, I will stick with the present configuration and evaluate other options, should limitations with the setup materialise.   

 

While rummaging through my spares boxes like a possessed spirit, I also happened upon the trail version of K-Lite's Bike Packer Ultra. K LITE BIKEPACKER ULTRA DYNAMO LIGHT | cycling-not-racing (sevendaycyclist.com) Suspicious that the V2 issues may boil down to the lamp, rather than the “box”, I performed the switch... On the one hand, being the same family, I would expect the switch and connectors to play nicely, but that shouldn’t be taken as a given. 

Thankfully, it wasn’t long before the lamp came to life, so I tethered it to the Soma Condor 2 Shallow Drop bars SOMA CONDOR 2 SHALLOW DROP BARS | (sevendaycyclist.com)  and am back to swooping through the empty lanes, which are now largely free of anything slippery, thanks to a sudden hike in temperature. However, there’s a fair bit of standing water, so sans guards, bikes get mucky. Nothing a decent bike wash won’t shift. Steve’s been quite impressed by the Pure PURE BIKE WASH | cycling-not-racing (sevendaycyclist.com)  

Larger bike packing luggage, including this Zefal Z Aventure R11 do a decent job of doubling as a rear guard, protecting rider and saddle from the watery worst.  

  

 

 

Rings & Ratios

My Univega’s gearing has always been something of a compromise, since 2017’s new paint and 1X9 makeover. A 34-tooth ring and 11-30 cassette would’ve been too low.

The 44x11-28 gives a range between 103 and 40.5 inches, which is generally practical for road duties, although, I’ve missed the additional torque offered by the 30- tooth sprocket. Especially when climbing a 1 in 7 and battling a headwind. Plenty of the latter, this past fortnight, or so.

Having just replaced the chain and cassette, buying another would’ve been silly, so I turned my attention to the front ring. 94 BCD…Nothing suitable “in stock” but a witching hour wander round the web, unearthed a black 42 tooth Talon for £9.99.  Apparently, these had been purchased from the distributor, in huge quantities and originally retailed at £35 apiece.

I was relieved to discover the old Shimano ring’s mounting hardware released with minimal effort. Moreover, though most patterns are accurate these days, I was pleased by the Talon’s fit. Anti-seize on the crank bolts, snug tight with a long 5mm Allen key-sorted.

Gearing now ranges from 98.3 and 38.6 inches without major jumps (38.6, 45.1,51.5, 60.1,67.6,77.3, 83.2,90.1, 98.3).

Arguably a 40 would’ve been better still, offering a 36.8-inch bottom gear. However, I’m not going to lose any sleep over it and will probably switch to a 11-30 cassette, next time round.

Continuing this theme, I’ve been fortunate enough to receive some lovely Genetic Tibia track cranks (and Tibia 7075 T6 ring). The cranks are JIS (Japanese Industry Standard) rather than ISO. Indeed, to my knowledge, this is comparatively rare. Though not overly problematic in the general sense, its worth noting that ISO tapers are slightly longer than JIS. This means you will need to buy another bottom bracket, to achieve correct chainline.

I was sent the 165mm arms. 5mm shorter than the System EX Track https://www.sevendaycyclist.com/system-ex-crankset , I suspect these were selected because of the road bike designation. My working fixed has a relatively tall bottom bracket, so less problematic (The original build had 175mm arms) but shorter arms provide additional cornering clearance on a conversion. I simply raised the saddle by 5mm to compensate.

Shimano’s UN55 is ideal (read all you need) for these duties. Inexpensive, the sealed cartridge bearings have been known to reach 10,000 miles, before slop sets in. The existing unit is still in rude health.

However, rude, agricultural language followed when I tried to remove the long standing, and very likable System EX. Self Extracting crank bolts are an absolute godsend. Univega and working fixed do not feature these, but their cranks are seldom removed.

Save for bottom bracket replacement, and periodic re-greasing of the bolts. On this occasion, after 29 years, my Sugino crank extractor finally died. Stripped tool threads meant it couldn’t divorce arms from tapers.

Enter this cheap, but cheerful X tools replacement, which arrived the very next day. Credit where due, it did the job handsomely. Nonetheless, prising those cranks from their tapers, still required copious amounts of penetrant spray, a very long 8mm Allen key and the sort of primal grunting more commonly associated with a labour ward.

Now, I don’t grease tapers but the bolts themselves were given a liberal helping of Park PPL-1. Ditto the reinstated ISSI pedals. The 44 tooth Genetic ring keeps gearing at 78.3 inches.

Taller than text book perhaps but avoids knee trouble, yet tall enough to dodge comical, warp-speed spin out along 1in7s. The new setup weighs 717g (48g heavier than the System EX) but I’m suspecting there will be other, tangible benefits…