Well last Sunday I decided to take a ride to the LBS to pick up some new handlebar tape and other odds and ends. About halfway home, however, I broke something else. Whoops
That's a Sugino XD crankset on a Long Haul Trucker, or at least what's left of it. You see, I'm an unabashed masher. Or rather I'm trying to mend my ways, but that crank has endured 10-15,000 miles of mashing torque. And it said enough! All looked dreary, right as things were getting positive. You see right now ain't exactly the best with finances thanks to some unexpected medical bills and vehicle repair that totalled more of the cost of the LHT, draining the "slush fund". However, a buddy - a great buddy - sent me this:
Victory!!! He seemingly read my mind as I was looking at other options besides Sugino, confused about them, and was considering dropping the front chainrings a bit in ratio. I previously had 26/36/48t on the front rings, this dumped it down a little - enough! - to 22/32/44t. Which is, frankly, quite perfect as there really is no occasions other than downhill on the highway that I've used the 48/11 combo. And I really don't like riding on the highway, I much rather prefer MUPs and gravel, of which I spend the most time in 36/13. I'm very close in gear inches with the 32/11 combo and might even use the big ring once in a while.
Okay, now on to installation. I was determined to "save money" and install it myself. GO AHEAD AND START LAUGHING NOW. After three days, two LBS trips, and a trip to Lowe's I'm done. Here are the tools purchased to accomplish it:
Park Tools AWS-1 Wrench set (because I've managed to lose all of my allen tools)
Park Tools AWS-3 wrenches (see above..)
Park Tools CCP-2 Crank Puller (no, a rubber mallet will NOT work..
)
Park Tools BBT-32 BB tool (this was the only "cheap" item)
Park Tools BBT-9 External BB Tool (can't have one!)
Park PolyLube assembly lube (SILENCE)
Okay, so now I have $100 in tools.. I'm ready, right? Oh no wait! Don't forget a new chain. SRAM-PC951 bought, and ready. I'm not sure about the durability of SRAM chains, but I do like the powerlink. I like it so much that the chain that came off the bike had two. Reasons for that should be obvious by now.
Finally, I'm ready for dis-assembly. You watch videos on the internet and they make it seem.. easy. Guess what? NOPE. They don't account for clyde torque! Eventually after enough arm torque, cursing, and more arm torque - and an hour - I got the old pedals, crank, and bottom bracket out. I then spend another 15 minutes cleaning out the old grease from inside the BB shell, applying new grease, and hoping I got the parts greased enough. Now.. assembly!
I went from a 68mm internal square taper BB to an external BB. On paper man that external BB stuff is neat! In practice.. OH GOOD GRIEF WHY DOES THIS THING NOT LINE UP OMG WHY IS THE CRANK NOT GOING IN OMG I CRUSHED THE STUPID TUBE BECAUSE I DIDN'T USE SPACERS OMG I USE SPACERS AND NOW THE OTHER CRANK WON'T GO ON OMG WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH YOU, YOU INFERNAL..
you get the idea
After another 20-30 minutes of cussing and messing with spacers I finally got annoyed and put one spacer on each side, slid the crank in, and put the other crankarm on. I can only thank Shimano for putting notches on the non-drive crankarm to align it, as I can only speculate the amount of cursing and tool-throwing would have ensued had I been left to my own alignment.
Now I'm 90% finished, it looks like the front der will align just fine with the three rings (THANK EVERYTHING that the front der is a friction bar-end), and it spins freely. Here's what it looks like:
I will admit, these external BB cranksets are something awesome! Compared to the infernal pain I went through dis-assembling the square taper crank, the four times I had to disassemble the new set took about a third of the time it took to dis-assemble the old set.
It's also nice to have the tools to do this yourself, even if I may have spent twice what it would have cost to repair it in tools.. BUT THAT'S OK.
Why is it OK?
I'm a Clyde, and I will break it again.