Wheelworks Blog

Tour of Wellington

I’ll be out of the workshop for the rest of the week doing my job as driver / mechanic / coffee brewer / director sportif for the Wheelworks Racing Team as they compete in this year’s Tour of Wellington.

You can read about the members of the team or  follow the Team’s updates and photos at www.facebook.com/WheelworksRacing

I’ll have limited phone and email access over the week and weekend but leave a message and I’ll get back to you as quickly as possible.  Have a great week and make sure to stop by and say ‘hello’ if you’re lucky enough to watch the race :-)

Maz's Ulmo

Maz brought his Ulmo into the workshop for me to tidy up the cables and housing.

Before: The plastic Campag downtube cable stops were missing their barrel adjusters and the housing was a poor fit, way too long, and routed outside of the front brake.

At the rear derailleur the endcap from a cheap front brake was used for the shift housings ferrule.

P1184945.JPG

After: I fitted some aluminium Campagnolo downtube cable stops with the correct barrel adjusters in them, shortened the housing, and fitted rubber o-rings to protect the paintwork.

At the rear derailleur I fitted the correct Campagnolo ferrule which has a small shoulder and sits inside the frame’s cablestop.

P1194949.JPG

Frames of this era were never designed with modern indexed shifting in mind and often the cables would be routed over the steel bottom bracket shell….with non-indexed downtube shifters a little extra friction didn’t matter! To ensure great shifting with the reasonably-modern 9 speed drivetrain I fitted small section of teflon tubing. These also have the side benefit of saving the paint. I fitted new DuraAce cables into Maz’s Jagwire outer. The DuraAce cables come at a more expensive price but they’re tightly wound to reduce friction and made from stainless steel so they won’t rust – these are the only cables I use.

The paint on this bike was done by the late (and great) Ross Bee. The threadless fork isn’t the original but it seems to handle well on my short test-ride down to the end of Lyall Bay and back.

P1194951.JPG