Sweet. Well I'll save that one for later... Seems like an awful lot of work, most of which I can't perform myself.

I think only the three biggest cogs are ti on XTR, the rest are steel. The ti cogs do wear out faster than steel, but unless you are using them a lot, I don't think you should worry about it. Usually, I get the most wear on the middle cogs on my road cassettes, b/c those get the most use.

If you change your chain before it lengthens too much you can get many thousands of km out of a single cassette, ti cogs or otherwise. I would think over 10 000 km. I've had the same cassette on my road wheelset for two years-must be 10 000 km. Gone through a few chains though.

It's all about AXLE TO CROWN LENGTH!
400mm or less for super handling and endo mainia.

Nowadays it's rare to find any quality rigid MTB forks less than 435mm.
It makes me sad :(

I don't see myself in the biggest cogs that often, especially considering its a 11-34 cassette. The big cogs will be for slugging up mountains with gear and the like, so they probably won't see too much use. We will be definitely be going under 10,000km (probably more like ~6000km), so hopefully I won't have to worry about replacing any components on the way.

To those with screen printing equipment I need some shirts made with the attached graphic, anyone want to do it for me?

I know-it's a sad state. I can't believe I sold my Ritchey P-23-damn I wish I still had that bike....and my bontrager racelight. The racelight even had horizontal dropouts-I could have made that into a badass singlespeed.

I recently switched out my junk wheelset for my "better" wheelset.
It still hasn't snowed, so I'm willing to ride nicer things till the slush come.

I must say that hubs are so important when riding.
Smooth bearings make all the difference when compared to bent axle Bull****.

Tight clearances?

http://closednode.net/images/bicycle...r/IMGP3254.JPG
http://closednode.net/images/bicycle...r/IMGP3255.JPG

I guess I won't be riding a front fender this winter. ACK!

You should see if they will produce and sell it at the Colbert shop!
http://www.colbertnation.com/cn/eagles-nest.php

Sounds like a fun trip. I think you will be fine, if you start with a drivetrain that is in good shape. If you do need something, 9s chains and cassettes are available everywhere, and it's not like cassettes and chains suddenly wear out in a way that leaves you stranded-it's a really gradual process.

Yikes! :) What size tire is that?

JW, re: bike portland, this isn't quite as impressive but:
Janet Attard - Janet Bike Girl <S26>
hand stenciled bicycle t-shirts, original bicycle art gift cards, unique gifts for that special cyclist on your holiday list

found here: http://www.401richmond.net/events/marketplace.cfm
via Martino's bike blog

Shiz, good idea but I still want my own, plus a spoke card of that and this

http://boingboing.net/images/287289316_682f92931_th.gif

Shiznaz, what tour are you doing? Cross Canada, by chance?

I have a Dura Ace titanium cassette on my road bike and I have also been told that I would be better off with an Ultegra cassette for the type of riding I do (ie: not racing) as it would wear less quickly.

The rule of thumb for titanium cassettes is not to buy used.

Specialized 32c..... which really means 32+2 cuz they always make their tires 2c bigger for some reason.

We are still trying to narrow it down, but a major part of the route will be from Victoria through to Ontario heading east. Our original idea was just to go straight across canada, but that requires 2 flights and could get boring at some points. I'd like to ride north along the pacific coast from california to BC and then head east along the yellowhead highway towards home. This will be totally self supported as well.

Ooo.... maybe I'll have to go grab one this afternoon after my exam.... I seem to be on a coffee paraphenalia kick of late.

Hells yes. They last long enough. Use it if you got it. Wouldn't recomend it to the average winter commuter, but you are a very special case. SPECIAL!

EDIT: and once that one wears out, and it will eventually, replace it with an XT or something cheaper. On my trip I went through about 2 Ultegra cassettes, and even more chains, but I was changing them on the safe side.

Very cool. What do you think is boring about going straight across the country? The praries? If that's the case, it can be quite the opposite. Case and point: One day riding in eastern Alberta, I stopped in this random *tiny* town for a rest, and it seemed pretty dead. So dead, in fact, that not a single person was there. Just to varify this, I sat on someone's front porch for a good two hours, and not a single person was to be found or a single noise to be made. Kind of freaky, actually.

Also, in defence of the praries, they're only "boring", scenery wise, if you compare them, to, well, everything else. Rather, take it as a given that it has it's own quirks, interests, and value.

The Yellowhead is a wicked road. It's built like a traffic-intensive highway, but the "shoulder" is actually wider than one of the driving lanes, so unless you're going solo, you can ride two abrest for the entire lenght with tons of room to spare.

If it's not yet obvious, I did the cross-Canada thing in '03. Self supported, 8000km, from Van to St. Johns, NL. Check out www.whereisjer.com

Sounds a lot like my trip. Recommendations: Southern California is effing beautiful, and fun to ride. The best part of by trip though was riding up from Lake Louise to Jasper along the Ice Fields Parkway (border between BC/Alberta). You have to pay, but it's so worth it. it was my favorite part.

The only reason I got the XTR in the first place was because it was cheaper than an XT cassette. I've got an XT RD as well. Ideally I'd like to not have to replace anything but the chain, tires and brake pads over the duration of the trip.

Tovi, I don't think I explained well... Its not so much the boringness, more a possible motivational issue... I have no qualms with any of the scenery either. We are going to be going east across the prairies no matter what, its just that the half way point is so close to home that I could see us losing motivation and ending the trip early (not so much a concern with me but a serious concern with my friend who often likes to just give up and end things early when possible). Starting in California with a final destination of home pretty much precludes that from happening. Thanks for the tips though, I'm looking forward to checking out your site.

Don't count on going through too many brake pads. I still have the same set as when I started, and they look really good still. Bring a spare set to be safe I guess, but I didn't. Then again, I guess your bike will need heavier stopping power if you are carrying some stuff.

I meant I don't really want to carry a spare bike with me, just the 'consumable' parts. Carrying a couple extra pads is minimal weight and bulk and will always come in handy (someone else might need them), but carrying an extra cassette and the tools required to install it just opens up the gates for carrying extra BB's and chainrings and stuff.

As far as bike parts I plan to carry with me at all times: extra chain, brake pads, 1 folding tire, 2 tubes, and around 4 spokes (more of a just in case; I've never broken a spoke, but we are riding loaded so...)

I'm also bringing a set of downtube shifters for an emergency fix in case my brifters die during the trip.

Sounds like an awesome trip! I'd like to do that one day when I can manage that much time off work :)

Thats why I'm doing it now. If I keep working I may never have a chance like this again. I'm only 22!

For what it's worth, I didn't bring spare bake pads, either. Nor were they worn out when I finished. I did bring some degreaser (and cleaned the drivechain about once a week), some grease, spare brake/shifter cables, a couple spokes (both drive/non-drive side), patch kit, and two unused tubes at all times.

The only "serious" mechanicals I had were 1)after 5 days straight of torrential rain in the Rockies, my rear hub (non-drive side) started rusting out, so I had to replace the wheel in Saskatoon, and 2)coming down Rogers Pass, my jockey pully (rear derailleur) popped off, so I just reguided the chain differently until I got to Golden BC, 70km away.

That, and a couple flats.