Category: Lemond Zurich

The maiden voyage was a success.  The Vittoria Corsa tires and latex tubes are great at 90/95, I give them an “A” rating.  Coming from Campagnolo groups, it was a little different to downshift using the brake lever, but that sorted itself out pretty quickly.  Upshifts are done with the small lever behind the brake lever, instead of the button on the side of the lever housing.  Again, just a little mental adjustment to make.

Brake modulation is good and they stop well and silently.  No need for new pads just yet.

I made a couple of small adjustments when I got home.  I tilted the saddle up a little bit, and straightened the right lever on the bars.  Ready to wrap the bars.

A little grease came out around the axle seals, so I cleaned that up and rechecked the preload on the front and rear axles.  All good to go.

There is a small issue with shifting.  When I shifted to the largest cog in the back, the first shift to a smaller cog was a “blank” in that the lever moved, but nothing happened.  Pressing the lever again worked properly, and all other shifts are fine.  I need to sort this out, but may need some help with people more experienced with Dura Ace shifting and setup.

All things considered, this is a very nice ride.  I like the Lemond geometry, and the 853 steel frame is first rate.  I must admit that the Dura Ace group is very nice (being a Campagnolo advocate), and with a little tweak it should be perfect.  Coupled with the tires and tubes, this is definitely a keeper.

The bars are wrapped and the Zurich is finished.

 

When I bought the 7800 group, it came with an 11-28 10 speed cassette.  I have no real use for an 11t cog, and a larger cog would be useful on the hills around here.  So I picked up an Ultegra 12-30 cassette.  Normally, the Dura Ace RD won’t handle a 30t cog, so I installed a Roadlink to give me the clearance I need.

Ran the cables and housing for the brakes.  I chose yellow housing (Jagwire Pro) for both brakes and shifting, as it is compressionless, lined housing for good braking and reliable indexed shifting performance.  I may need to replace the brake pads, don’t know that just yet.  They look fine, but we’ll see how they perform on the test ride.

I removed the old downtube cable stops and installed the new ones.  I’m looking through my bike parts to find the BB cable guide I need for the shift cables.  Found it, and installed it.  Ran the shift cable for the front derailleur.  No issues with it so far, limit screws are set, but will have to wait for the rear derailleur to be sure that it’s good on both chainrings and at either end of the cassette.  Ran the rear derailleur shift cable, and it’s shifting up and down the cassette without any real issues.  The FD adjustment seems good, but I needed a little more tension on the RD cable to dial in the shifts perfectly.

Taped the brake housing to the bars, and checked everything over.

Received the 50t chainring, so loosened the chainring bolts and swapped the 53t chainring for the 50t, being careful that the chain drop pin is oriented with the crankarm.  After installing the smaller chainring, removed one set of links.   I also lowered the FD just a touch.  Might be able to remove another set, but will hold off on that for now.

It’s ready for the maiden voyage, and I’m planning on a 30+ mile ride on Saturday morning with some folks that leaves from the Hoptown Y at 7am.

I cut some 3M paint film for each side of the headtube, for the bottom of the downtube, and for the top of the DS chainstay.  Now the most commonly chipped and abraded paint is protected.

The steerer/headset issues have been sorted out (thanks to Rob and an extra keyed washer) and the fork is installed.

Installed the Hollowtech II crankset, which took just a few seconds more than typing this sentence.  The front and rear brake calipers are installed, along with the front and rear derailleurs.  The Ritchey Classic seatpost and the Brooks saddle is installed, and I’ve positioned it to match the Merckx measurements.

The stem, a Nitto Pearl, is installed along with the handlebars which are Nitto B115 alloy.  The brakes/shifters are next.  Handlebars set and semi-tightened, levers are installed and lined up.

Next I laced the H+Son TB14 rims to DA 7400 hubs, using DT Swiss Competition double-butted spokes.  I need to swap the 7401 freehub for a 7403 freehub so that I can use a 10 speed cassette.  I was lucky enough to pick up a 7403 hubset and the tools I need to do the swap.

It was a bear to remove the 7403 freehub from the donor hub.  I had to lace it into a spare rim to be able to apply enough torque to remove it.  But it’s off, and cleaned up now.  Removed the 7401 freehub from the “real” hub so I can replace it with the 7403.  Then the 10 speed cassette can be installed.

I cleaned up the 7403 freehub and let it soak in a bath of Mobil 1 gear oil for a couple of days.  Let it drain for a couple of days, then cleaned the oil off the threads that go into the hub.  Odd not to use  any kind of lube on these threads, but that’s what Shimano says, so I followed their directions.  The freehub is on, and the 10 speed cassette fits fine.

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.

Got to Duane’s a little early on Sunday, but he was waiting and had the frame ready to go. It looks just great with a fresh coat of clear over everything.  The candy blue was tricky to match, but Duane did a great job and the touchups are very difficult to find.  I’ll have to do a good job with the build to match the frameset.

Got the frameset home today, but I won’t get to it right away.  I’m in the middle of overhauling the Cannondale ST600, so I really need to finish that one up first.  it’s still in pieces, and I got the freewheel removal tool I needed and removed the freewheel.  I’m sending it off to the freewheel spa for a service, and while it’s away I’ll get the wheel bearings and hubs cleaned and regreased.  Then I can true the wheels and install the new tubes and tires.  Once the freewheel is back that will be the wheels complete.

Sounds like progress, slow but relentless (emphasis on slow).

I’m going to pick up the Lemond Zurich frame that has been touched up by Duane at ChesterCycles.com.  He has done this work for me on other frames and his work is superb.  I can’t wait to see it, and more so, I can’t wait to begin building this bike.

The frame is on the receiving end of a Campagnolo Chorus 3×10 group, all silver, which should work well and look great at the same time.  I really like the older Campy groups, the polished alloy parts in particular, and the fact that Campy is not as common as the more ubiquitous Shimano hardware.  All of the modern groups work quite well, and can even be mixed and matched to some degree and retain a high level of performance.  I just like Campy more, so that’s what I chose.  I’m not anti-Shimano or SRAM, I’m just pro-Campy.  I did just install a Shimano 1×11 drivetrain on my Giant XTC, so I don’t always choose Campy.  The right tool for the job, you know.

I think I have all of the components I need for the build, but as my past history shows, there will be something (or things) that I need but don’t have.  OK, I need handlebar tape.  So history does repeat itself.  But it can be ridden without that, so it isn’t a critical-path item.  That’s my rationalization for today and I’m sticking with it.

Stay tuned for photos as this frame becomes a bicycle.