いくつかのアップグレードを行ってバイクを改良しようとしましたが、まだ十分ではありません。

いくつかのアップグレードを行ってバイクを改良しようとしましたが、まだ十分ではありません。

In a recent video, I restored or rebuilt
this old Diamondback Century road bike. I had gotten it cheap
and it was in fair condition. My goal in that video was to see
if I could restore it and rebuild it, and turn it into a bike
that I would want to ride. The conclusion I came to
at the end of that video was that this bike, even though it’s a nice bike,
it really wasn’t worth the effort. I didn’t like the eight speed drivetrain
and I didn’t like the way the bike rode, so the ride was just way too stiff. That got me thinking though. If I had made a few different decisions
when I rebuilt it, could I have ended up with a much better bike
that I would have been happy with. So in today’s video,
we’re going to revisit the decisions I made in that video, we’re going to do some upgrades, and we’re going to see
if for just a little bit more money, I can actually turn this into a good bike,
one that at least that I want to ride on a daily basis. So if that interests
you, let’s get started. You guys have some really good ideas in the comment section
of that other video. Give me ideas of things
I could have done differently that would have made the bike better
for about the same amount of money. One of the things I regret about
the original build is keeping that eight speed drive train. When I had to replace the shifters,
I should have taken a step back and looked at the overall cost, but I thought it was just
going to be the shifters. I didn’t know it was also going to turn
out to be the derailleurs and the chain. So this time
I am pulling all that old Claris stuff off, and I’m replacing it
with a Shimano 105 5800 drivetrain. I actually got this whole group
set for $350, so that included the shifters, the derailleurs,
the chain and cassette, and the calipers. I spent too much money initially
on those Zipp bars. I actually do want to take them back
and put them on a Kona. So I found this set of Zipp service course
handlebars. These were $20 on eBay. I really want those DT Swiss
wheels that you saw me put on. I want those for my Austro-Daimler build. I’ve been eyeing them
since I pulled them out of the box. So I got this set of Ksyrium Elites. I got these on eBay. They were $100 for the pair
and then $30 shipping. What’s great about these
is they’re like 1800 grams for the set,
but they came with tubes and tires. So for $130 I get rims, tubes and tires. That’s going to save me about $60
compared to what we did before. These need some rim tape. So I’ve got some from my parts bin
I’m going to put on. And then I’m going to fit these tires
so we can put those on the bike. All right. I’ll show you that Austro-Daimler
if you’re curious. Right now it’s just a frame. But it is a beautiful frame. I’m super excited about the build,
even though I’ve had it on my shelf for, like, a year. You’ve probably seen it in 4 or 5 videos,
but I’ll show you that. So you guys can see it. It’s completely off topic from today’s video, though. I did check. And there is a paint drying channel. And the guy’s got one video
where he just slaps paint on a wall, white paint,
and the video is ten hours long. He’s got something like, 2.5 million
views on that. So little did I know, but paint drying videos seem to be lucrative. It seems to be a lucrative business. So, you know, if you’re looking to get into YouTube, you don’t
have any idea what you want to do. You know, there’s an idea
that’s pretty easy. Buy some paint, something fun to look at. Point your camera at it. Let it dry and record a time lapse. If you’re lucky, like that guy,
you’ll get a million, million views. The cassette that came with that groupset is this Shimano CS-HG800-11. Or at least the lock ring is. It’s not actually written on the cassette
anywhere, so I can’t be 100% sure. But this is an 11 to 32 11 speed. I can’t recall if I need a spacer
with these Ksyrium wheels, so I’m going to start
with a 1.85mm spacer. And then if it turns out it’s too tall,
if I get too much stack, I’ll pull it back out. Yeah that’s that’s way too much stack. All right so there we go. Confirmed. You don’t need that 1.85mm spacer. The wheels came with… AH! Hold on. Cassette parts everywhere. That wheel came
with a one millimeter spacer, so I wonder if that’s the one
I really ought to be using. So that’s here. So let’s try that again. But this time we’re going to go with no spacer. I’m just going to put it on
without any sort of a spacer. This is supposed to be an 11 speed
freehub body. So we’ll see I think that’ll be all right. All right. I didn’t like how that pulled up. Yeah, so apparently we do need that one
millimeter spacer. We’re learning together,
so I’m going to pull this back off, and I’m going to fit a one millimeter spacer
on this Ksyrium hub for use with this. CS800 [cassette]. I wish I was skilled enough to just
pull this off and have it stay together, but I am not sprockets will go over. So I’m gonna try again. Here’s a one millimeter spacer. We’re going to put that on, and then we’re going to try and, then we’re going
to put the cassette back on. So once I get this on, I’ll use that
freehub tool and I’ll tighten it down. And then this wheel
will be ready to go on the bike. I’m not going to put it on just yet
because we’ve got to do all the rest of the drivetrain. So I think once this wheel is done,
I’m going to switch over. I’m going to bring the bike in. We’ll pull the crank, we’ll pull
the derailleurs, we’ll pull the shifters. Basically, we’ll take it back apart. I think we’re
going to have to rewrap the handlebars, which is unfortunate
because I just wrapped them. All right. Let’s see how this fits. Oh yeah. That felt right. I can never keep it straight. Which cassettes need
what spacers on what freehubs. So it’s usually a trial and error for me, but we’re good there. So let’s get the bike in here,
and let’s get stripped down of the things it needs
to have stripped down. And we’ll get that drivetrain put on it. I should have washed this wheel. I got the bike taken apart,
I removed everything. We’re going to upgrade. It felt a little weird taking a bike apart
that I put together two days ago, but it’s taken apart. So now I can show you
what we’re going to put on it, and we’re going to put it back together. These are
the shifters that came with that groupset. These are Shimano 105 5800. So this is a two by 11 setup. I think these are, what,
three generations old now. So we’ve got the Rs 7100,
which is the new 12 speed. R7000, and 5800. So yeah, these are three generations old. These are in really good shape
for their age. But we’re going to do
just like you saw before. I’m going to install
these kind of guesstimate alignment. Set them both to the same position. And then once the bike is together, but
before I put bar tape on it, of course. Right. I’m going to set it down on the ground and we’ll get these properly aligned. I’m really excited for this. I’m hoping that it works out. You know, I, would really like this
to be a nice bike. And so if it does work out,
we’ll learn something, right? We’ll learn that
we should spend Robert’s money wisely. And if we make wise choices,
we can make a bike. That’s really nice for not so much money. But if it doesn’t work out,
then we’ll learn, we need to spend Robert’s money
more responsibly. And I will have spent, I don’t know, $300 or $400
more on this set up. But you guys will learn a lesson,
and I guess so, like. I guess I should have mentioned. So shifters are on. Now we’re going to install the cables. I have high hopes that I can reuse
the cables, but chances are really good that I’m going to get them in
and they’re going to be slightly too short or they’re going to be creased. You know, some
something’s going to happen. So I can’t reuse those cables,
but I’m going to give it a shot. I really should
buy one of those bulk boxes of cables. You know, like Jagwire will sell a box
of like 100 cables. Problem is, it’s like $250. But I go through cables
like crazy in this shop. And every time I replace the cable,
it’s like $6 or $7. So it would be money well spent. I just have to spend it. But anyway, let’s get this bike turned. I’m going to start
with the rear derailleur. We’ll put that on,
and then we’ll put the front one on. Actually, we should probably put
the crank on and then put the front oneon. We’ll do that. I just realized,
this is a shadow rear derailleur. So this is not a 5800. I was expecting a 5800 derailleur. I don’t see any reason why this won’t work
with that 5800 drive train. Or those shifters. What is this? This is an RD-R 7000,
so that’s unexpected. It’s actually a nicer derailleur. I think. But I’ll get it put on here, and then we’ll get it set up. These install
just like any other derailleur, except, I’ll bring in here and show you,
there are two alignment tabs on the back, and you would think that they fit in
between that B-tension land on the derailleur hangar,
but they don’t. They set so that when they’re installed
and tightened down, they’re pretty much level with the ground. If you put one of these on and that’s more
up and down, you’ll know it’s not right. But you also never get it to shift
correctly. That looks pretty good. And then this is a cable
that was already on the bike. This is the one I put on before. This is the little whip cable
that Shimano includes with the derailleur. I like to use this
instead of like a Jagwire cable or one of the bulk cables,
because I think they work better. I think that’s probably just in my head. But you know, like I said before,
once you get an idea in your head. So that looks good. I want to put the front derailleur on,
but before I do that, I need to fit the crank
so I know where to align it. So I’m going to grab the
crank. Let’s get that put on. This is
the crank that came with that groupset. I just realized
I didn’t have it on the [bench] when I showed you guys
the other parts that came with it. This one’s kind of cool
because it’s a silver arm. You don’t see many of those, but this
one’s got a silver arm with black rings. This is a standard crank. So this is a 53,/39. I happen to have some 50/34 rings
in my bins. 105 53/34’s. There’s a mosquito in here. So I’m going to swap this out. And we’re going to go from a standard
gearing to a compact gearing. I’m going to keep the black rings
and the silver crank. So when this is put together
and look just like this. I kind of like this look. I think it reminds me, you know, like of what
the cranks looked like in the late 90s. Back when they had aluminum arms
that were polished and black rings. So I’m not going to show you guys
swapping the chain rings. You know what that looks like. But I am going to swap them. I’ll come back. We’ll get this crank in. All right. I got the chainring swapped. So now it’s got a [50/34]. The more I look at it,
the more I like this silver and black. So I’m gonna put this on. Get it torqued down. I’m not going to show you that because we went through that
in great detail on the last video. I’ll put a link to it up above. So if you haven’t seen the last video
you’ll know what I’m talking about. I cannot sing, I can’t carry a tune. Even if I had to. You know the old phrase:
Can’t carry a tune in a bucket. Yeah. That’s me. But I’ve got two girls
and they’re always singing. And so to participate,
I will often sing in moos. So things like moo,
moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo. Moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo. Sometimes I find myself mooing in my videos
and then I’ve got to go and edit it out. I’m not going to edit that one out. I’m going to leave that in there
for you guys. Hopefully you, are nice in the comment
section, you know, really tear into me
for my horrible singing abilities. All right. I think we’re good. Oh, can’t forget the popper. All right. So the crank is on. I made a mess. Okay. The crank is on. The more I look at it
the more I like that silver arm. That is not something I would have done. I never would have thought to do that
but I really like it. So here’s the front derailleur. This is a 5800 front derailleur. This one’s a braze-on. It did not come with a clamp. I had this one in my bin. It’s for,
I don’t know, 30.6 seatpost, I think. But basically, it’s just a seatpost clamp
or, derailleur adapter and a braze-on. So nothing special about this. Just like before. Put it on. Figure out where it needs to go. I’m looking for 1 to 3mm
above the chainring. I’ll show you that in a minute. And then tighten it down. So we’ll have two adjustments to consider. We’ll have height, which is this way. And then we’ll have the angle
which is, you know, like this. So I’ll show you
both of those in just a moment. The first adjustment
we want to make is height. So we want this to sit so that when it is
in the mid-pull position. So when it’s out about there
and fortunately this one goes out relatively straight. But when it’s in that mid-pull position that it sits 1 to 3mm above these teeth. These teeth are not all the same height. It’s part of Shimano’s Hyperglide system
to help this shift. So roll it around. You’re looking for the tallest tooth
which is probably that one there. So we’re shooting for 1 to 3mm between the tip of that tooth
and the bottom edge of that derailleur. And that looks right to me. Roll the crank around. Make sure it doesn’t hit. And now the second adjustment
we need to do is the angle. So kind of like this I’ll slide you around to the back
so you can get a good look at this. And I’ll show you what we need to do. I’ve got you set up at the best angle
I could get to show you this. Hopefully you can see it. You’re at the back of the bike
behind the rear derailleur, so the position we’re trying to align is the driver in this direction
so it can pivot around the seat tube. What we’re trying to do is get the line
here of the cage exactly parallel
with the line of the teeth. So sight down it and look at it
until they’re parallel. Line of sight works just fine. When you tighten down the clamp, the drill is going to have a tendency
to rotate in that direction. So set it so it’s at a slight
angle outward before you tighten it down. And then when it’s tight
it should line up parallel. That looks good to me. I’m going to double check. My height is still good and it is not. So I’m readjusting the height. All right. Height looks good. Front to back. Angle off. Looks good. I’m going to tighten it down right there. I moved the bike, didn’t I? I bet you guys couldn’t see that. so we made good progress. We get the bars on, we get the shifters,
the drivers and the crankset installed. It’s 1030 at night, and tomorrow
I’m going to drive into Denver. So going to be up really early by 6 a.m. on the night out. I am not a morning person, so I could be
up until two and that’s just fine. But don’t ask me to
get out of bed before eight. So if I’m going to have any chance
of getting into the office on time. I’ve got to call it a night. So tomorrow after work,
we’ll continue putting this together. So the next thing we’re going to do
is install those new brake calipers. We’re going to run the cables. We’re going to put the wheels on. We’re going to tune the shifting. And hopefully if we’ve got enough
time, we’ll get out and see how it rides. Kind of excited. All right. Welcome back. So it’s the next day. You probably figured that out
because it’s light outside. And what I’m wearing is changed. So the bike is looking pretty good. I think today we can get it finished. So we’re at the point
now where we can cable it and cabling should go pretty fast. The housings are all cut. Basically
I’ve just got to pull the cables through. I’m going to cut the front shift
housing shorter by about an inch. That’ll give me an inch more cable
to work with. And hopefully
I will have to replace the cables. I did some measuring. I’ve got the room for it,
so I think that’s what we’re going to do. So I’m going to zoom you guys in
so you can see this area. And hopefully without too much dialog
I would get this cable. These are the front shift cable housings
that we cut before and fitted to the bike. I put them on here just to look and with the bars with these new shifters, I think I can actually cut off here. See if we’re right here. We’ve got enough cable
that it won’t find when it turned. And that
looks like it’s about an inch shorter. So it’s about that much shorter. It’s a little bit more than an inch. So I’m going to cut this back
a little bit. What that’ll do is when I run the cable
through we’ll have that much more cable. Hopefully when I get it through,
if I’ve got to cut the ends off, I’ve got plenty of room on
to replace the cables. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard
people say that bike cables stretch, so you have to readjust them after,
you know, a few hundred miles. It’s not actually true. The cables are made of steel. They’ve got a high tensile strength. The cables aren’t doing any stretching. What’s happening is
the housing is compressing. So everywhere you’ve got an end,
everywhere it meets up with the frame or adjuster. After a few hundred miles,
those get worked together. And that’s
why the cables need to be adjusted. It doesn’t really have to do with cable
stretching, but cable housing compressing. So have you ever mentioned that to somebody on the internet,
especially if you’re on Reddit. There you go. Make sure you don’t see that
bike cables stretch. You’ll never hear the end of it. How the wires or the cables
all route up front. It’s kind of up to you. I like to do it
just so it’s neat when the bars, you know, when you move the fork around. It’s kind of, trial and error,
like everything else on every bike built,
because every bike is different. Every bike is different. That Monty Python? All right. So I’m going to run it through here
in front of the shift cable and then into the frame. All right, so there’s our housing. Routing the cable through
those is super easy. Barely an inconvenience. And you’ve seen me do it before. So I am not going to record that. But I will bring you guys back
once I’ve got the cables routed through. And hooked up. And we’ll get the shane, chain installed. If you pop these master links apart frequently, these pliers are super cheap on Amazon. I don’t know, under $10. I didn’t have one for years. I used to do the needle nose plier trick. But I got these
and I use them all the time. So if you do a lot of work
with these re-usable master links, I recommend getting a pair of these. All right. I’m going to move you guys and roll this around. And let’s see if we think that
chain is the right length. So I got the chain,
shifted into the largest chain ring. And almost the largest sprocket. Let’s see if I can get it to go. All right. And that is what my derailleur looks like. So I think my chain is a little short. What do you guys think? Would you run it like that
knowing that you’re very infrequently in this gearing combination? Or would you add two lengths to this
chain? Let’s go down
and see how it looks in the two smallest gears, the two smallest chainring and the smallest sprocket. Because if the chain is shorter, this is going to have to go back further. I think I need to add two links, so I don’t have a link that I can
rivet in. I don’t have a, I don’t have a link, so I don’t have a link
and a pin that I can put in here. So instead I’m just going to take another piece of chain
and put in a second master link. So it’ll be another piece of chain
and two master links. I know that’s not the right way to do it, but for right now I think it’ll work
until I can either get a longer chain or get the correct pin
so I can put this together. So hold on, let me fit another
master link, and then we’ll do this again. And you guys can tell me
if you think that looks right. This is what I have for spare
master links. Every time I pull a chain off,
I save the master links. Sometimes I also shave,
save a length of chain. Being a bike parts hoarder
actually pays off from time to time. So I did find a short
length of 11 speed Shimano chain. So I’m going to break
out one of these inner links from this. And then I’m going to join it together
with another master link. One link. Two link. Seth from Berm Peak did a video where he had a chain
that was just all master links. He rode it hard. He didn’t have any trouble with it. If I remember, I’ll put a link to that
video because it’s pretty interesting. So there we go. I’m going to zoom
you guys back out so you can see it. We’ll roll it through shifting and see
what it looks like in the big chain ring. Big cassette, big gear, big sprocket. In the smallest combo,
it looks just fine in my eyes. And I have not adjusted his shifting yet. I’m just trying to
get the chain length right. I think that’s right. We don’t have a ton of. You know, this doesn’t look overextended,
the derailleur doesn’t look overextended, and when it’s in the smallest combination,
we’ve still got enough chain tension. So I think that is the right chain length. I’m really glad I had a spare master
and was able to put that together. So now it’s time to adjust the shifting. Get it shifting correctly. I’m not going to show you
how to do derailleur adjustment. I did a short on that
and it was pretty well done. So I’ll just put a link
to that short up above. If you want to see
how to tune the derailleurs, check it out. If you want to. But I’m going to switch the camera off. I’m going to get this tuned
and then I’ll show you guys how it looks. Hopefully it turns out all right. It’s not like the last time I did it where the shifting is complete
garbage afterwards. So hold on. I’ll get this tuned. We’ll be right back. Yeah. I mean, that’s pretty good. I may have to tweak it a little bit
after I ride it, but I think we’re going. So the last thing I want to show you guys before I take this out and ride
it is adjusting the brake pads. They’re way off and I haven’t shown you
how to do that yet, so it’s really easy. You can make it difficult,
but it’s also really easy. So here’s the quick and dirty way
I adjust pads. So I take them loose, both sides. Although that really doesn’t matter. I suppose. And then I squeeze the lever
good and hard, and I put the pads so that it sits
pretty much centered on the rim track. Kinda I, like you see here. Adjust it slightly. And then I tighten it down. There’s a lot more you can do with toe
and everything else, but this method works just fine and it’s super easy for you to do, So, doing the same thing on the other side though, you can’t see it. And then I will do the same thing
on the front. And then we’ll have brakes. And now I can take it outside and show it off. All right. Bingo. So there’s tires
that came with the wheels. They actually turned out
not to be such a great deal. They were in good shape,
and they looked to be in good shape. I went out and I put, I don’t remember, 25
ish miles on them last night. And when I got home, the rubber
was starting to flake off of the sidewall. So I think they’re old. They’re probably older than the bike. So instead of using those, I got a set
of these Goodyear Eagle sports. These were the cheapest name brand tire
I could find that also had the tan wall. Because I really liked
the looks of the tanwall. I weighed these, they weigh in at 237g each,
which isn’t too bad. So I’ve pulled off those old tires. I’m going to fit these
just because having good tires is a smart thing to do. This is my first time using Goodyear branded bike tires, so I hope
I have a good experience with them because they were $30 apiece on Amazon. Same price
as those cheap American Classics that I got, that actually didn’t
really work out that well either. These are not tubeless, they’re tubed. So they should hopefully fit on
and be something that I can change while I’m riding. Those tube tires, or those tubeless
American Classics that I had on fit so tightly that I don’t think I could
have changed them roadside if I had to. They were a struggle
just to get on the rim here in the shop. It’s one of the reasons I wanted to get rid of them
is that I don’t want to call my wife to come
pick me up just because I have a flat, and with those,
it felt like a flat was inevitable and I wouldn’t be able to change it. All right, well,
I’m going to get this tire changed. You guys don’t have to watch me. This isn’t the tire changing,
paint drying channel. So I’ll get these fitted
and I’ll show you how they look. I got the tires installed. Unfortunately, they fit really tightly. I had to use levers. I actually wasn’t sure
I was going to get them under the rim. I don’t know if it’s the tires
or that these Ksyrium wheels. It’s such a shallow rim bed, but these went on so tightly I don’t think I’d be able to change them
roadside, at least without tools. I typically run Continental 5000’s. Those fit the rim loosely enough. You can get them on and off
with your fingers. So I’ll just have to make sure
I remember my tire levers when I ride. So the whole point of this video was to see if we made some good decisions. If we could build a better bike for about the same cost
that we did the first time around. So I want to take a look at what
this bike cost me. So let’s pretend that the original bike,
so in the first video didn’t happen. I’m going to add up the cost
of all the parts that went into building this bike. And let’s see how the two compare. I added
up the costs for this version of the bike, and I did it
as if the first version didn’t happen. So I’ve included a list of what I spent . The total build came out at only $863. So that’s $63 is all over
what I spent on the initial build. This bike is a full 105 bike,
and if I were to go out and buy a bike with 105,
I think that’d run somewhere around $1,500 maybe. It’s been a couple years
since I’ve looked at the bike market, and I know it’s down right now,
so that number may not be accurate. So from that point of view,
you know, with the bike having better components
and competing against better bikes, this is starting to look a little bit
better on the might be worth it scale. But ultimately it’s going to boil down
to how the bike rides. I want to weigh the bike. See how it compares both
to what it weighed when I first got it. And what it weighed to the initial build. So let’s see where it’s at. I’m hoping it’s lighter, given that,
you know, we use some better components. We will see in a moment. I got to turn the scale on. So I’m giving it to you in pounds
because that’s what I’m familiar with. And then I’ll convert it to kilograms. All right. So right now that scale,
you probably can’t see it, but I’ll put it on the screen. It’s jumping around, around 20.7 pounds. So if I recall right
it was initially 23.6. So that’s about 3 pounds. And then the first build, it was 21 even. So we saved another 0.4 pounds. So I’d say taking the bike down
3 pounds was worth it because that’s 3 pounds again
that I don’t have to haul up the hill. I uploaded last nights ride to Strava,
so if you’re curious how I did on this bike
after these upgrades, the link to that ride
is in the description As to whether or not this version
of the bike with these upgrades made rebuilding this old road
bike worth it, I’m kind of on the fence there. The drive train, the new 105 11 speed is night and day
better than that old eight speed Claris. The bike rides so much better. And for only $63 more. So for $863,
I’ve now got a road bike with full 105. I think finding a new bike
with similar spec would be difficult. I expect we would spend at least twice
that. Comfort wise though,
the bike is not any better. It’s still got a really stiff ride. I didn’t do anything to change that. I did fit new tires. I haven’t ridden on them yet. I just put them on this morning,
but they’re only 25mm wide and they’ve still got 70 psi in them, so I doubt they made much difference
with respect to ride quality. So I’m on the fence. If I were to do it again, I still think I probably wouldn’t do it. I appreciate you guys taking the time
to watch this and leave comments and feedback,
if you decide to do that. So for today’s video. So that’s it for today’s video. Thanks for watching. I’ll see you later.

Strava Link to Shakedown Ride: https://www.strava.com/activities/15690909916
Follow up to the “might not be worth it” rebuild video. In this one, I redid the rebuild using the parts you guys recommended in the comments. For only $63 more, I end up with a bike that is much, much better. I’ve upgraded an entry level bike into something more. But in the end, I still think it’s not worth it, for reasons I’ll tell you about.