OK as I promised in my introductory post, here's a bit about a Centurion Dave Scott Ironman Carbon (dang, that's a mouthfull). In case the title didn't clue you in, I have nothing but loathing for this bike at the moment.
Let's backtrack a bit and see if I can get the story straight. I've been trying to get back into biking, and being both poor and cheap, have been watching craigslist for affordable mountain bikes. Well, one day, up pops and ad for a carbon fibre triathlon bike.
This generated about 15 minutes of intense googling to figure out roadbike sizes (Hey, it'll fit). Couple that with no luck on MTB's for awhile, the fact that's it's CF indicates to me it probably cost someone a chunk of money at one time, and the price is closer to $100 than $200. WTH, I make a phone call and arrangements are made to go and fetch it.
Looked like a bike made of CF, so I pay the guy and start hitting the net. It's missing all the brake components so about a week of research finally lands use a set of 105 calipers for $17 off ebay, and some new Tektro levers, Cane Creek cross tops and a set of Dura Ace cables from various dealers.
To digress further, the bike was apparently issued with a full Dura Ace gruppo, but the more I look, the more I realize pieces and chunks have snuck off quietly over the years. The cranks and BB appear original, as doe the friction shifters and the front derailer. Only realized later that the rear derailer is an Altus, and the bars are Cinelli mounted to a no-name cheap stem.
Anyway here's a look at the beastie as assembled so far:
Please ignore the ugly cabling job; at this point I haven't wanted to cut anything until I made sure it was all working and I come up with a placement I like for the brake levers. I was more interested in testing it, so about 1:00am last Thursday, I rolled out into the dark to see what we had.
AND NOW, we get to the punchline; why I hate this squirrelly thing
It doesn't roll so much as shimmy, shake and grind it's way along. I wish my wife could move like this. But it's not a good feeling on a bike.
What's going on, and here is where I could use some input, is that the wheels weren't exactly true when I got it, and the tires themselves look sort of like a snake eating eggs. The PO told me the wheels were true, and playing the part of a total dumb-***** that day, I didn't bother to do any high tech inspection, like actually spinning the darn things and looking at them. I've managed to get the front running good, but I'm afraid the rear rim might be toast. I believe it's been flat spotted, crushed, bent or whatever. I need to get the tire off and get some actual measuring tools on it.
So I guess the basic question is, could the tires be the worst of the problem, or...? Remember the front trued up nicely, the rear is out about 1.5mm at one place both for round and plane, and the spoke tensions vary pretty wildly to get it that far. I'm running the tires at about 95 psi. My gut feeling is that I can probably use the front with a new tire, but I need a new rim to lace into the rear. Money is kind of a concern, thus I'd rather put a new rim on than buy a whole rear wheel. Obviously, I'm a little reluctant to try used wheels off of ebay at this point for fear of getting the same problem. My frustration comes from trying for a month to get out and work some of this fat off, and finding I'm not ready to ride yet.
Now we'll take a break from my whining and look at some more picture. Here's the sticker on the top tube:
And a close up of the rear left drop out; lots of cute little aluminum lugs on this thing.
Here's a view of the BB and cranks. Please look closely at the Dura Ace logo, there will be a quiz.
Quiz question is: Can someone identify which Dura Ace series this is? I think it's 7400, but I'm not positive. I'm hoping to scrounge enough original parts for it eventually.
Anyway, I think I'll like it once I get the kinks worked out, but could use a little inout here as I'm so frustrated I can't think clearly on it. I gave up for the weekend and have been working on my wife's Trek MTB. The shifters were frozen so I had to tear them down and clean them. Note to self: Tearing down index shifters isn't the best way to relieve frustration.
Thanks for any help,
Rob