Tearing her down.
My favorite toy is, without equal my Zipp 2001. I don't ride it all that often, but man do I love it when I do. More than anything though, it's just cool. And I am a sucker for cool stuff.
That said, I kind of slapped it together when I bought it, getting it "nice enough" but not giving it the amount of attention it truly deserved as an aero benchmark. So, this year I've decided to remedy that problem, with a little help from the Tririg store.
Here's what we're starting with.
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| Pretty clean, but nothing spectacular. Cable routing is pretty meh. |
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| The Egg is still one of the best Aero brakes out there imo (especially when it comes to stopping power) but it doesn't fit the "stock" Zipp look I'm going for. |
The fork (Ouzo aero) is still a slick piece even by today's standards, but unfortunately the Simkins Egg brake is finally starting to show some age. I definitely have nothing but good things to say about the brake (other than it's a bit annoying to get set up if you have to do it "on the spot" away from the garage.) but it doesn't quite look the part for the Zipp. My vision for the final result is to be what Zipp would have used "today" as opposed to what they used in 1992.
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| The stock Zipp brake on the rear. Amazing aero tech for how old it is, just don't expect it to stop you. |
The original Zipp brake on the other hand... well I don't have very much "good" to say about it at all. Once upon a time when aero goodies were a bit more of a "oh yeah..." afterthought, we were thankful for things like the Zipp brake, Hooker, Delta's, AX, etc. Hell, I've even "Cobb Hacked" a 105 brake. Unfortunately, the performance on these older aero brakes ranges from "serviceable" (The Hooker and AX) to downright dangerous. (The Hack and the Delta's come to mind) The Zipp brake falls somewhere in the middle... adequate as a rear brake (that is, it'll shave a little bit of speed when it's properly set up... which is a pain in itself) but definitely not something you'd want to rely on. And hey... it's aero, right? (And the carbon cover looks really cool.)
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| Of course, once they are side by side, you can see just how BIG the Zipp brake is. |
As for the rest of the cockpit, the changes are going to be straightforward... simple but effective. The S-bend extensions are getting swapped out for some Gamma extensions (at the ski bend is a bit easier for me to get into my optimal position, at least on this bike.) and the ugly Ritchey stem is getting upgraded to a much cleaner Sigma. Since I've got my old Nokons from my Planet X laying around, it seems like the perfect opportunity to upgrade that setup as well. Finally, I'll be chopping some of the length off of the Stratos brake extensions, as they are quite a bit too long for me.
Only a couple of things I'd *like* are missing from the new build. Unfortunately, I just can't justify the $ on some of these mods for a bike I don't ride all that often.
Things I'd like:
- A Zipp VumaChrono crank. The old Carbon Zipp crank I have is cool, but the Vuma is the update the 2001 deserves, even if it isn't the one it needs.
- A Zipp VukaAero base bar. Again, keeping things in the "Zipp" family would be sweet, but alas.
- Zipp Disc. The wheelcover is sorely lacking when you compare it to how sweet a real disc looks. Being a 650c bike though makes it really hard to justify a dedicated race wheel. Maybe an old 900 / 870 will show up on ebay one day that the hipsters don't snipe.
- A 3000 Front Wheel. I know it's not Aero. I know they're gobbled up by the aforementioned hipsters...but dang it, it looks cool. A yellow one would just be icing on the cake.
Anyways, I've got it apart. I even got the brakes mounted and the Stratos cut. Then the Arctic cold hit again and sapped away my motivation to be out in the garage. So, I suppose I'll save the "building it back up" for next week.
Thanks for reading, I always appreciate it!
- Christopher Morelock
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