The Tempest has finally seen some decent use this year and I am ever more impressed with how stiff, light and agile this bike is.

After a couple of long rides I felt that the large chainring could be larger and that the brakes were not perfectly set up. The crank was a 40/28 and after much reading and deliberation is now successfully a 44/28. It rubs only very slightly on the bottom of the front derailleur whilst in 28/11 which is no problem and the chainring still has about 3mm of play between the teeth and the chainstay. This is accomplished without the use of a drive-side spacer, so the chainline is really optimal!

The resulting gearing is now great for the flats and does not rob my bottom end which I ensure is required! The brake levers went from XT (V-brake, non-adjustable) to Ultegra (Cantilever, adjustable) and I find that they are only OK. Primarily because they are only 2.5 finger where the XT's are 3. The only drawback from the XT's was the longer cable pull, as they are intended for v-brake use. When used with the cantilevers, the pads would kick out very far and the kool-stops would rub on the tires. It was hoped that this would be remedied with the new Ultegra levers, but regretfully was that not the case as the cable pull is still somewhat longer than hoped. What I ended up doing was filing down the upper-rear edges of the kool-stops and now have no rubbing.

The XT levers will most likely get re-installed as they look better and allow more easily, more power application. I am also playing with the idea of installing XT v-brakes to go with the levers. The bike would be slightly heavier but I feel that the braking power and modulation will benefit. I don't feel that they would look as nice as the cantilevers but perhaps after having the arms of the v-brakes polished to a high-shine would they look even better!

Anyhow, the bike was cleaned and I took to it with some metal polish/protectant. It has after all been a couple of years and the aluminum was needing some attention.