The paint touch up on the frame and fork is finished, and as usual Duane at chestercycles.com did a superb job.
Started assembling the parts for the build. Rob has talked me into using Shimano Dura Ace on this build, which will be a big change as my other builds have all been Campagnolo. Part of the fun with a build project is searching out the proper parts for the build and it will be a learning curve on this one. Not too painful, I hope.
First, I picked up a set of Dura Ace 7400 hubs on ebay for a reasonable price. The rear hub came with a 12-21 8-speed cassette on it. I’m looking for a Dura Ace 7700 group, the last of the 9 speed groups from Shimano.
Well, plans changed – mainly because I found a very nice Dura Ace 7800 group on paceline forums, and will use this group for this build. This is a 10 speed group rather than 9 speed, so I’ll need to be sure that the rear hub will work for 10 speed cassettes. Most of the reading I’ve done says Dura Ace 8-9-10 speed cassettes are interchangeable, so they should work.
I picked up a set of H+Son TB14 polished rims that I will lace to the DA hubs. I’ve used these rims before, on my Lemond Alpe d’Huez build and they’re very nice. Nice polish, machined brake tracks for good braking and easy to build.
A 10-speed cassette (Ultegra CS-6700 11-28 came with the group, but it won’t fit the DA freehub I have. Mine is a Ultraglide (UG) freehub, meaning that the hub is a 7401. I need a 7403 freehub so that I can use 10-speed cassettes. The 7403 freehub is UG/Hyperglide( HG) compatible, and has the single narrow spline that will work with 8-9-10 speed cassettes. Separately, these freehubs are basically unobtainum. I was lucky enough to find a 7403 hubset on ebay, so I will swap the 7403 freehub over to my original hubset. Well, they CAN be swapped but require some special tools to remove and service the freehub. Down into the rabbit hole I go. Luckily, a BikeForums member had a set of these freehub tools that he was willing to part with, so I picked them up.
Installed a new set of Ultegra BB cups for the Hollowtech II crankset, easy enough to do with the proper BB wrench, which I borrowed from my cycling buddy Rob.
Installed the crown race on the fork, then pressed the headset cups in. Installed the fork and found that the steerer is about 3mm too long. The top nut bottoms out on the threaded part, leaving about 2mm of thread exposed above the toothed washer. I saw two options: first, add a couple of toothed washers to take up the space, or second, cut about 3mm off the steerer. I’m leaning towards cutting the steerer, mainly because that allows the headset to fit properly, but it is irrevocable. Once cut you can’t add length back so it’s a one-way process. I haven’t yet made the final decision.
Stay tuned as this build progresses.