The first longish ride on the Merckx is finished, and I have a little work to do. First, the rear caliper was twisting a little, and pushing the left pad against the brake track. I don’t really need any help slowing down when I’m trying to go forward so that needs to be addressed. Second, the rear wheel seemed to have a little bearing play that shouldn’t be there so that needs to be investigated.
I tightened up the recessed nut for the rear caliper and it’s better, but the real problem might be that the housing is a little too long and is pushing the caliper. I’m going to ride it as-is and see how it goes on the next ride. If it’s not working properly, I’ll shorten the housing.
The wheels have cartridge bearings, so there isn’t much to adjust compared to cup and cone bearings. The caps that hold the bearings in place were not completely tight, so I snugged them up and reinstalled the wheel. There is no bearing play now. I checked the shifting and it’s good.
I ride a fairly small frame, so there isn’t a lot of exposed seatpost. I had mounted a red blinky light on the seatstay of the CAAD8, but on this frame the seatstays are shaped, not round so the mount doesn’t work so well. I have a nice rubber mount for the light that wraps around the seatpost, but then I can’t fasten the seatbag in place. So I ordered a top tube bag that sits on top of the top tube and fastens around the tube and the stem. You can easily get at the items in it while riding, and it isn’t in the way. Hopefully this will turn out to be a good solution to the blinky light vs seatbag war.
I’ll know in a couple of days.