masi61

For several years I have had a 1999 Cannondale CAAD3 R1000 built up with a funky mix of SunTour drivetrain components with Dura Ace 7410 cranks and Salsa chainrings built up custom. My shifters are SunTour "Command" 8 speed indexed to a SunTour XC pro medium(short) cage rear derailleur. I had SunTour hubs (32 hole front & rear) built up on to DT Swiss RR 1.1 rear/RR 465 powder coated grey rims. The rear hub is a Superbe Pro Accushift cassette hub with a modified 7 speed cassette (where I added one extra cog and spacer from a second cassette to make 8 - it works!). The front wheel was built up with a new old stock SunTour XC 9000 front hub. Both hubs have a super pretty polished silver finish that has become rare nowadays. These parts took some time to locate but ultimately they were fairly affordable and bringing them together in this build seemed a worthy exercise. That they seem to work so well is a nice bonus since I did anticipate some glitches with the shifting. I'm happy to say that for the most part the rear index shifting across all 8 cogs is spot on! In many ways, it shifts with harder, more reassuring clicks both up and down the cassette compared to modern Shimano variants.

I had been using a road double with 39 and 53 tooth rings, which when mated to the 12-26 eight cassette I had set up made for the ability of me to climb moderate but not extreme hills. I decided to do a Willow "tripleizer" conversion to my vintage, low profile Dura Ace 7410 crank. Apparently the whoever made the original run of different size Willow chainrings went out of business. A person on eBay bought out the remaining stock and has been selling off the odd sizes remaining. I purchased a 130mm 46 tooth inner triplizer ring, a 32 tooth "granny" ring and a bolt kit for a reasonable price.

I'm happy to say, that the crank is coming together and appears as if it is going to play well together! I'm using a Cyclone 7000 front derailleur which appears to be for a double but somehow it appears it is going to just have enough throw that the big chainring is not going to rub while in the big/small 53/12 combo. I took the low profile Dura Ace 102 mm square taper bottom bracket out of the equation in order to gain the clearance for the granny ring. In it's place I now have a really cool "Grease Guard" Microlite bottom bracket with a 115 mm spindle. Again, it seems to work! I have not road tested the set up yet but so far I see no major contra-indications to this setup. The XC pro rear derailleur seems to wrap chain like a champ and it appears to not need me to even add links to (or shorten) the rust-free Wippermann 8 speed chain I was using with the double.

I have cleaned everything really well including the used chain and I am trying a new product for me: "Molten Speed Wax". It is a special wax that you apply in a small crock pot after cleaning your chain extra, extra clean. Again - I will say, so far -so good! According to their literature, if you apply the product correctly where the melted wax makes its way into the innards of the chain, what you wind up with is a most satisfying cluster of attributes: lower friction, very clean chain that does not turn black as quickly, and lubrication that lasts up to about 400 miles of riding. I will be happy to entertain any questions about all of this, and plan to post updates after I road test this funky drivetrain and my new, clean waxed chain set-up.

The Golden Boy 

That sounds like a whole lot of class A candy there!

You'll need to post some pix of that!

I've used 6 speed Accushift Command Shifters, but I've always been afraid of Accushift 7 and 8 speed. I have one bike that I've modified the Command Shifters for 10 speed SIS. It works great- I was just reading about how 10 speed SIS Shifters index on 9 speed SIS cassettes with an Accushift derailleur... that might be cute!

52telecaster

i love both of my triplizers... so damn useful.