Tag Archives: shimano

5 milimeters

Posted by xaminmo

Such tiny changes make so much difference.

Handlebar height from axle is now only 1.5 cm lower on the white bike, so we will see if it works for my back.

I shuffled parts because the black bike would not take 180mm cranks without frame impacts. My old cranks are 175mm and the 5mm difference, or 10mm total in a circle, is huge.

My seat is set back 25mm and I am not sure if I will undo that yet, but the nose is uncomfy.

Thought I would need a short test but I will need 100-200 miles to see if 180mm is a good move.

Also, the non-shimano bottom bracket I pulled is so much better for square taper, but I really like the new hollow axle BB. I have an SRAM/Truativ GXP, which is very similar to Shimano Hollowtech. The wider bearing position is nice. Less flex.


Tools and Shimano Gripe

Posted by xaminmo

My replacement, smaller torque wrench came in. It works. I can throw away my super-long one that does not work. I have a non-ratcheting breaker bar I’ll keep instead and not be tempted to see if it works.

I installed a Selle Respiro Moderate Men’s saddle to test out on my 50-60 mile ride tomorrow. I hope it’s not a big mistake. Maybe I should bring my old seat with me. It *seems* more comfy, but it also seems set-back too far. May need to pull it all the way forward, AND tilt it down 1-2 degrees.

Two of my bikes use Shimano bottom brackets. I found that the Shimano BB-UN55 (Bottom Bracket – crank spindle with sealed bearings) has different splines on each side. Standard, flat-bottom splines all the way into the cup on the non-drive side. All tools work okay on this. The drive side is cut into stainless steel, is tapered, and only half-way into the cup. The Park tool for this really doesn’t work. The Avenir tool is pretty decent, and got me fixed up, but it was still a pain. I have Pedro’s tool on order, which has tapered splines, and should work even better.

What would be best is if Shimano cut the spline grooves all the way down to the BB shell. Though, maybe I can take the Park tool and file the splines.

Note to self: 450-600 inch pounds for the BB shell, and 300-400 inch pounds for the crank bolt. Everything else is labelled with torque specs visible during install, but the BB specs are inside the frame during install.


Cycling Shoes

Posted by xaminmo

yAy! I was able to find some cycling shoes in size 50E (14.2 wide). These are Shimano SH-M088LE, black with red highlights, and have mountain tread and cleat mounts. Insoles are replaceable. They fit really nicely, but I have not ridden in them yet.

My size 49 Pearl Izumi X-Alp shoes are nice, but they make my middle 2 toes go numb and haven’t stretched out after over 400 miles. I used their cleat alignments as the basis for the initial adjustment on the new shoes.

Also, I found some pretty low-cost mountain SPD pedals for my hybrid. They are still clunky and designed for normal shoes, but have 2-sided SPD clips. The PD-M545 are pretty awesome, and support the multi-release cleats (SH55/SH56) which I like.