Managed to get a few decent training rides in since the last post, including nice runs to Oxford and Brighton (both around 60 miles).
New Dynamo hub (finally) works perfectly, and silently. Don't even notice when it's working away, and definitely don't notice any drag - in fact the first ride I did I got my fastest time of recent months. So that was an unfortunate incident with the previous faulty one. All worked out OK in the end apart from the time, and a load of extra postage charges and a rebuild charge. Just got round to siliconing the cables on so don't need to have so many cable ties or tape. It disappears quite nicely with the gear cables under the tube.
The lights work well too, and have done a few tests of charging the battery with the e-werk, which all seems OK as well. Need to do some more scientific tests to see how long it will take to charge the battery with/without the lights running, but at the end of the day even if it cant be kept fully charged, it will still mean less reliance on mains power. Fingers crossed, riding six or more hours a day should easily keep it topped up.
While I was there and on a bike maintenance bender, I also ended up swapping out all the low-end components on the bike too, as I was never that happy with them. eBay to the rescue, and after a lot of bidding, waiting for parcels, and a couple of re-sells due to doubling up on a couple of bits, I ended up with:
XT HTII crankset,
XTR rear mech,
XTR front mech,
XTR shifters,
Deore cassette and
Deore chain.
Since I'm not too worried about the weight, and wanted the performance mostly in shifting, I think it's a nice mix of components. All 9 speed, which I'm fine with and should last slightly longer than the 10 speed (maybe). That was also the reason for the non XTR/XT cassette and chain. And the cost too.
Not that the old one was worn out (and most likely would have lasted longer than some of the new stuff), but it's all a lot better for fixing in the field, as the external cup BB's need less tools for example. Actually, the BB is one part I'm not too happy with, and might upgrade that with some new bearings.
So almost a completely new drive chain. 'New' meaning new to me, but second-hand eBay. There was quite a bit of cleaning of the components involved, but degreaser and grease are cheap!
The final thing to sort out before the long ride, is the iPhone software. Still not fully happy with the combo I'm using now, versus the simplicity of what the Edge did. But there's still a bit of time to play, and it will definitely do the job. Being able to have the screen on all day at full brightness (if desired) makes a big difference, and the resolution makes reading the maps really easy.
Will add a few photos of the whole setup when the rain stops.
