How To: Install Soyo (or other Track) Grips

I was halfway through installing these the other day when it struck me I should do a "how to" on it... that's why one grip is already on and the pictures kind of suck. Sorry... be glad you got anything!

Since I've made my way into the world of track, there has been one seemingly endless source of frustration... getting those dang grips on "easily." Some people will always prefer just good old fashioned bar tape, but personally, I like the grip from Soyo's. (with gloves on... might be a little tough to handle if you ride gloveless) Well, the first time I *attempted* to install some, I absolutely ripped my hands to shreds. So bad in fact that I had to stop and wait a couple of days to finish while the skin healed back. That was after spending an hour or two online looking for the "easy" way to install them. Sure, a google search will find you a couple of threads and some YouTube video's, but nothing really helpful for installing the super tight NJS style grips. (Soyo, Yoshida Champs, StrongV, etc) so, using what little I picked up online, and a lot of trial/error, I've gotten really good at installing them, and I thought it'd be fun to put a resource out there that was a little more in depth. So lets get to it.

- Lubricant/glue - 

The first thing to decide is what kind of lubricant you want to use. First, let's be clear, you want something that won't continue being slick after it dries. (When you're twisting from a start or in a sprint, you don't want the grips moving) That means oil/wd40/grease/etc isn't what you're looking for. From the things I've tried, it really comes down to 3 choices. 

- Rubber Cement

- Hair Spray

- Windex (soapy water would be fine too) 

All of them have positives and negatives, so I'll let you decide as to which one to use. I've tried all 3, and have my own thoughts on each. 

Rubber cement is the "traditional" way if such a thing exists. The Keirin stars in Japan (or their mechanics) do this using rim cement (I used Elmer's rubber cement... but whatever) and once that sets, those grips aren't moving. EVER again. The good thing about that is you don't have to worry about anything slipping on you when you are really torquing on the bars. The downside is that you've basically bonded your grips to your bars, and getting them off is a matter of literally cutting them off. Once you've got them off there is also the matter of cleaning the dried glue off before you can move forward. That's not a huge deal on metal bars as any number of solvents will help you along, but on carbon it's a little more dodgy. There's also the fact that you will inevitably (or at least I did) make a hell of a mess installing them in the first place. Fortunately, it's a lot easier to clean up while everything is still wet, but still... it's not a lot of fun. I used this on my Nitto bars, but honestly... I think it's overkill.

Hair spray is the next step down in terms of hold vs. mess. This is what I consider the go-to method. You'll get a lot of hold, some lubrication while installing, and not a lot of mess either installing or after removing. This is what I've used on most of my carbon bars since it's a lot less difficult to clean the residue off if I ever want to replace the grips. I use good old aqua net (also what I use for my 3d printer build plate) because it's cheap, unscented and readily available. Some of the "spritzer" bottles might work a little better as they stay "wet" longer than the aerosol spray does, but I haven't had much problem.  The main downside is the over spray, and that it's pretty fast drying so once you commit, you need to get the grip on asap. It's almost certainly not the same strength hold as glue is, but unless you're really putting a ton of torque into your drops, I can't imagine them budging. I've tried multiple times (using both hands) to move mine, and I can't do it. Although I'm not a pillar or upper body strength to compare to.

Windex is the go to for when you're having issues getting the #$@*& things on. (Soapy water is a fine substitute as well) Windex is really nice for installation because you can be LIBERAL with the application and not worry about it. It's quick drying, which is another nice bonus to using it. The downside is that you don't get any extra "stick" when it dries, so just the tightness of the grips is all that keeps it from moving. I can move the "centering line" of my Soyo's ever so slightly when I use this method under normal conditions, and I can twist it a bit if I really try. Not enough that it would be noticeable mid-sprint/start, but enough that you can see it afterwards. If you're a big stickler for things being perfect (I sort of am) then it might drive you crazy... but functionally it should be fine for the already super tight grips.

Other Options There are a bunch of folks (well, some anyways) that use other methods. One that's pretty popular is using an air compressor with a needle nose (search google/YouTube for installing a golf grip with an air compressor to get an idea how it's done.) to "slide" it on while consistently blowing air under it. I've tried it a couple of times, and I don't find it to be a great installation method. That said, it is great for removing the grips, and it can help you straighten things up if you got it twisted around somehow. Overall, I think it's meh, but to each their own. Another option some suggest is boiling the grips to make them more pliable. You could also heat them up with a hair dryer / heat gun (I'd be very careful with a heat gun that you don't burn them) I've actually heated the ends before to make them easier to slide over the tip of the bar when starting out... I don't know that'd I'd go so far as to boil them though.

Alright, so you've picked your poison. For the installation part I'm using the Windex method, mainly because I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep the short grips on or swap them for longer ones. I'm also putting these on Sphinx bars, which are so noodly that I'm likely not going to be using them for lots of sprinting/hard starts... so no need to glue them on.

Here's the steps I use to get them on "easy"

Secure the bars
This is probably the thing that made the biggest difference for me. Take the stem/bars off of the bike (or mount the stem to the bars if you haven't installed them yet) and remove the fork or use a spare fork/metal rod to attach the stem to. Then secure the fork/rod in a vice or your bike stand (so long as it's sturdy) with the end of the bar facing you.  You're going to be tugging/twisting/pushing on this thing in anger pretty soon, so it needs to be well braced.

Lube it up
I start by spraying down the inside of the grip and the very end of the bar. I just want to get the grip slid over the lip of the barend to start with (and if you go crazy with the Windex at this point everything will be too slick to get a good grip on.

Windex to the rescue

As you can see, the grip has to stretch a pretty significant amount to fit over the bars. Again, if windex is proving to be a little tricky getting the grip over the end, you can gently heat it up and you shouldn't have any problem clearing it. Now that you've got it started, it's time to get a bit more liberal with the Windex. I coat the rest of the bar, and spray a little more into the end of the grip for good measure at this point.

Test your grip strength
At this point it's all about how tough your hands are and your technique. Personally, I've got delicate hand model'ish hands, so it's here that I pull out my trusty leather work gloves (whose real purpose is relieving stress in spokes on wheels I build, and occasional yard work... very occasional) and spare myself the blisters that I'm sure to incur without them. If you're more of the "manly" type, then by all means forgo the gloves.

The best method I've found is to take your other hand and brace the bars (pushing back against the bend in the drop) as you both push and slightly twist the grips up the bar. You don't want to go crazy with the twisting, as you want the grip to line up straight when it's all the way on, but twisting will help it climb up the bar.  Once you get about halfway up, it'll become much more difficult. At this point it's best to go back down to the start of the bar and start pushing/twisting again. Once the grip moves up in that area, go back to the top of the grip and pull it further up. It's a little tough to describe, but you'll get more grip on the bar by working in these two steps.

Go back and make sure it's all the way on

When you get close to finished you need to check and make sure that the end of the grip is firmly against the end of the bar, it can be a little hard to tell. Once it's on, check and see if it's lined up correctly. (Most grips have a seam that runs straight up the grip... I always line that up dead center) You want to do this now, because after the Windex dries up it'll get much more difficult to make adjustments.

And  that's how that is done. I'm still not 100% sure if I'll keep the short ones or get some long one's... I really only use the back of the drops on these bars (check out that super short stem on these Sphinx's to keep them legal)  so I don't really need any more surface area, but then again it might look slightly better with the longer grips. If I do, maybe I'll update this with pictures using another style.

Well, thanks for reading, hopefully this saved somebody from some frustration and blisters!

- Christopher Morelock

How To: Add laces to your (non lace up) cycling shoes

If your first thought was "why?" then you're obviously new here. We'll forgive you for that. The stuff we do and try on this blog isn't about having good reasons, it's about seeing if we can do it. That said, my poor Specialized 74's have seen better days. I had replaced the boa's about a year ago and cut the new wires slightly too short, which made getting into them a real pain. A week or so ago I broke one of the new boa's and decided instead of replacing them again I'd see if I could make them into lace ups! Because that's the hot thing right now. It'd also be practical as it'd make it a lot easier to get into them and one might argue have more control over keeping them tight when riding. So there, there's you reason. But really, this isn't a blog for rational reasoning, just trying to do new and interesting stuff.

So, you want to breathe some new life into some old kicks. I did with my old Specialized 74's. 

They've seen better days since then. Not long after adding some gold "flare" to them one of the boa's broke on me.  The simple solution is to just contact boa and get a replacement shipped to the door, but that's no fun. Since I've been using these as my backup track bike shoes, I was interested in trying to convert them to lace ups. So, after scouring the internet for some time, I cobbled together what I decided was the "best" way to do it, and so this post was born. 

While the themes here are universal, keep in mind that your specific shoes might require more/less work, and you could indeed ruin your kicks if you screw it up. Follow at your own risk.

First, let's get to what you'll need.

- Seam Ripper

- Butter Knife

- Heat Gun (probably not necessary)

- Xacto Knife

- Hammer

- Leather Punches (+ a block of wood... junk)

- A leather punch tool with rotating head (you can probably pick one of the two)

- Eyelet Tool (and eyelets)

- Some laces

All of that together is probably $20-30 worth of stuff (minus the heat gun) depending on what you already own.  You can get the seam ripper (get one with a big handle) eyelet tools/eyelets and leather punch at your hobby/craft/sewing store for a couple of dollars each. (Also most of that you could find at Harbor Freight as well) 

With that out of the way, let's get to it!

First, you're going to need to remove whatever system of closure your shoes previously employed. (Straps, ratchets, boa's, etc) For me, that meant removing the boa closure system. Time to bring out your trusty seam ripper and start plucking away. Find and cut the seams on the INSIDE of the shoe first, the less you have to mess with the outside of the shoe, the better it's going to end up looking.

Just dig under the seam and push

This is going to make up the lion's share of the work you do. Take your time, and try not to rip out any seams that aren't directly holding what you're trying to get rid of. For me, the issue was that the top boa's were also glued onto the outer of the shoe. Now fortunately the glue was old and cracking so a butter knife under the lip did most of the work, but I heated it with my heat gun just to make it slightly easier to remove.

gap where the glue began letting go

With a little bit of elbow grease (and cutting a couple of the seams on top of the shoe as well) the dial finally gave up and pulled free.

One down

The key here is not to get flustered if it seems like you're not making headway. Take a step back and don't do anything hasty, that's how you ruin stuff. In my case the top boa also had a couple of "hidden" stitches I couldn't see (you can see them in the above picture in the top right corner) that were holding the boa in place. Instead of just yanking on it harder I ran my xacto underneath the boa and cut them by feel. After that it pulled off easily.

after getting the first boa removed.

For the most part the rest of the ratchets/guides were a snap to get off. The only other tricky part was at the bottom of the tongue, Specialized had decided to stitch the upper to the tongue itself (I suppose to keep the tongue from freely moving) which again required a steady hand and the trusty xacto knife.

removing the tongue from the upper.

After that it was mainly a little attention to detail that was necessary. Removing the loose / frayed stitches and just cleaning up the shoe left us with this.

all gone

Since my shoes were all white (or at least they started their life white) but really looking aged, I went ahead and took this time to freshen them up a little bit. I started with some Clorox wipes to remove the dirt and smudges, then moved on to a Kiwi "white restorer" I picked up at the grocery store.

White on White

While you certainly don't need to do the above step, it is a good time to at least clean your shoes a little bit before we move on. And the Kiwi restorer...it works ok... just basically painting new white on. It does look "better" but certainly not like new.

Alright, so the kicks have been cleaned and freshened up as much as I'm willing to do... now it's time to start poking holes in them. 

Figure out how many eyelets you want, and where you want them. I marked mine with a tiny permanent marker. It's a good idea to put the eyelets back from the edge a little bit at least, since it'll be more sturdy. The flip side to that is that if you move too far from the edge some of you hole pokin' tools might not reach. 

Here's where the debate heats up as it were... which tools do you use. Purists, or at least those that work with leather a good amount will tell you that the punches are the only way to go. You get a clean hole that cuts straight through. The downside is that you need a hammer, a solid block of wood and a little more patience. 

tap tap tap it in

The other option is the rotating tool like I bought from Harbor Freight. Instead of cutting through you're really just pushing the head through and ripping the material. That sounds a lot worse than it actually is... and I decided after using both on this project that either would have been perfectly fine. The caveat to that is when using the handheld tool it's important to "twist" it while holding pressure on it to make sure you get a clean break/hole. Otherwise, you might end up with a bit of a mess.

I used to punches for most of the holes, but the handheld tool for the bottom holes because it was tough to get my wood block in position. Whichever way you choose, just take your time and do it right and you should have no problems. After all that we end up with something like this.

holey...

Now that we've got our holes (mine are offset a bit due to the way the 74's ended up after all the hardware was removed) I suppose you could technically stop here and lace them up. But, we'd like for it to look nice'ish and the eyelets should add a little bit of protection against ripping, and it's cheap enough to pick up that you really should just go the distance. 

It's worth noting there are other, "better" ways to add eyelets, but you're starting to get into harder to find / more specialty tools so we're not using them.

So poke some (right size!) eyelets into the holes you've created and grab your eyelet tool. It's pretty self explanatory as to how it works, just go down the line and get a good firm press on each one.

Lighting because...ambiance

Pressing in the eyelets

Once you've got the eyelets installed it's time to lace things up. When it comes to laces the sky (and maybe your imagination) is the limit. Me, I'm kind of old school, and just went with black. (Although some black and gold combination or maybe leather laces might be cool) 

The final product

Not bad

Snazzy new old kicks...

Not too bad of a job if I do say so myself. We'll see how the long term durability holds up, but this was a fun little project that ended up waaay better than I expected it would. I suspect if you were a little handier with the tools, and maybe a little more imaginative than I am, that you could have come up with something even better. Still, I should be able to squeeze out a few more miles in these guys now!

Thanks so much for reading, I really appreciate it!

- Christopher Morelock 

How To: Dip Your Whip!

Well, it's our first post in the new format, I hope I can deliver!

In the last couple of years one of the things I get the most comments about is my Speed Concept, or particularly how I painted it flat black and then wrote a bunch of crap on it in gold. Well, it isn't paint, it's Plasti Dip. I've painted a carbon bike before, and while it's not the end of the world, it's a bit more job than I want to replicate in my garage again.

Being that it's been about two years since I started riding my Trek, I thought it was time for a refresh. As the theme of the last little bit has been new formats, I thought I might branch out and paint it a new color as well! So, after perusing the local hardware store I chose red. (Fastest color, right?) Since I was going to do it anyways, why not make it a how to!

Plasti Dipping your bike

Prep Work

The first thing I needed to do was strip the old dip off of the bike. You can of course skip this if you're starting fresh, or refer to it if you want to take the dip back off later! One of the big bonuses of using Plasti Dip as opposed to paint is that once you get good and tired of it, it's relatively easy to remove. After removing all the components (it'll be necessary for the next coat anyways, and it makes removing all the old dip / cleaning the frame much quicker and easier) you'll have your choice of where to start as there will be plenty of places that the dip ends. Failing that you should also be able to get your fingernail under some of it and start that way. I began at the seat post insert.

As you can see in the picture above, large chunks really do come off pretty much as advertised. The caveat to that is that when you spray something it has enough of a layer to stick together. If you lightly coat a part (easy to do if you weren't paying attention while spraying something of similar colors) then it will not peel quite as easily, although it still shouldn't cause too much problem. For those problem area's and any residual nooks and cranny's my suggestion is to spray with good old WD-40. Leave that on for about a minute and wipe with a rag... the plasti dip should melt enough to come off pretty easily.

Now you need to give the bike/parts/whatever you're coating a good bath. Make sure that everything is nice and clean so you'll have a good surface to spray onto. Don't skip this step! Just take the water hose and a rag and give your bike a bath you filthy animal.

The next part of the preparation is to mask off the parts of the frame you aren't interested in coating. The better job you do here the less headache you will have later. Trust me. If a degree in design taught me anything at all, it's that a little extra prep work will save you from having a disaster towards the end. You are going for a nice even spray all over. If you have to start cutting/ripping bits of plasti dip off to fit your water bottle cage bolts, it's going to start ripping up your coating prematurely.

Add caption

I always start off with big squares of painters tape to block off most of what I don't want sprayed. Holes in the bike (cable inserts, bottom bracket,  head tube, seat post) are annoying because you want to try to get as close to the edge as possible, but you still need something for the tape to stick onto. I go back and forth between taping over and cutting a slightly larger diameter around the opening, and stuffing the opening with bunched up tape. Both seem to work pretty well, it really depends on how well I can get the tape to stick. Then it's time to pull out your trusty xacto knife and CAREFULLY trim the masking tape into the shapes you need. I can't stress enough, carefully. You don't want to be cutting down into the paint, and if you're using a very sharp knife it is easier than you think. Just don't get in a hurry and you should be fine.

Here's how it looked when I got done trimming. You don't need to be perfect, but again, the better you do now the less cleanup you'll have to look forward to later. Once you're satisfied with your masking, it's time to get to the fun part.

Spraying the bike

There are a LOT of options when it comes to plasti dip. I'm going to be using the cheap rattle cans I bought at the hardware store, but you can certainly go hog wild. Dipyourcar.com has some really cool stuff, although I've never used it personally. (I'm a cheapskate)

It's here I'll throw some words of advice/caution out before you get started. If you're using pretty much any color except black, you are going to have a tough time totally covering the designs on your bike (unless there are none of course.) Using red to cover blue/white for example (in this post) it will be very tough to totally conceal the Trek logo's / where the bike sharply changes color. I tested it out on the fork first and decided I actually thought it looked pretty cool with the design very slightly visible underneath, but if you're looking to get a solid coloring out of it my suggestions are to either

a.) build a lot of layers. Personally I go 3-5 sprays and that seems to build up a nice coating. If I wanted to totally conceal what was underneath, maybe 8ish(?) would be necessary, maybe more.

b.) Start with a coat or two of black plasti dip, then use the color of your choice over top of it. Black pretty much covers everything, and then covering black will hide any of the logo's/paint underneath. This probably ends up being cheaper and easier than option a.

So, once that's out of the way it's time to start spraying.

When it comes to spraying, especially out of a rattle can, it can't be understated to do it in a warm area with a warm can. The colder it is, the longer it'll take to dry and the more likely you're going to get runs in the dip. Runs are going to cause you all manner of headache down the road. On the first layer or two you're going to be really, really tempted to load it down with dip... it might look like you're not even getting much of a layer on the first time over... you will regret overspraying the first layer or so, trust me. This is where you're most likely to get runs, and again, runs now are headache you can avoid later.

If it's nice and warm out the layers should go on and be relatively dry quickly. It was around 70° here and the dip was pretty much as done drying within 5 minutes. Give yourself a little time, use a ventilated area (with mask of course) and slowly apply layers.

Now, having said that, I wanted to bodge mine pretty badly so I could show you how to "fix" a bad job and repair plasti-dip.  If you're only a layer or two in and you've got horrid runs/texture/etc, probably the easier course is just to peel it off and start again. But I'm going to show you a little bit more "advanced" stuff. It'll come in handy when you inevitably get a tear in your dip (bike carriers will shred plasti dip, as will sweat eventually.)

Another thing for me to stress to you is that no matter what, you're not going to get professional looking results out of a $5 rattle can. Not in paint, plasti dip or anything else. If you can't live with some imperfections, this isn't going to be for you. You can end up with a very nice job that will look sweet to somebody passing by, but if they put their face right up to it it's probably going to show some flaws. My advice is to fix the major flaws that are in obvious areas, but don't worry about some runs on the bottom of the left chainstay or somewhere else nobody will ever see.

So, back on track... give the entire frame/part a good 2-3 layers, where the plasti dip is noticeably built up.

As you can see, from a few feet away, not bad. Unfortunately, once you get up close the ugly details become more apparent.

The top right of the first picture you can see there are runs that culminated on the downtube. These run all the way down the right side of the bike. When you run your hand down the downtube they are noticeable humps to the touch (that's important, make a note)

In the second picture I've got some rips (I actually ripped it on purpose, but it's easy to do if you didn't let it totally dry and accidentally brush it, touch it, etc... this is also how most of your damage later on will look, albeit possibly bigger)  so I'll go over how to "fix" both types, or at least the way I do it.

Fixing imperfections

Understand first that plasti dip only builds layers on what is already there. So just spraying another layer on top of an imperfection will not do anything but add another layer of imperfection. That mean's that there are two steps to fixing either a tear or a run.
1.) Get the dip even.
2.) Add more layers

In the case of runs, you have too much plasti dip in a few area's (where it has pooled) compared to the rest of the layer. I've found the best way to bring it back to even is by wet sanding with very fine sandpaper (I use 1500, although that takes a lot longer than something like 800 you have more control over it. You really would prefer not to make a dip into a tear)

Sanding dip, like sanding anything, is time consuming. Using a lower grit makes it a lot quicker, but you have a bit more chance of going too deep too soon. I use a spary bottle of slightly soapy water and use a microfiber rag to dry it after I think I've sanded enough. It's important to remember, you aren't trying to make it look pretty at this point, you're just trying to make it even. So sand, rinse, wipe, run your finger over it, if you feel a bump, repeat.

Now, when you have a tear, you need to try to even out the layers a different way. The real PITA of a tear in plasti dip is that the edges inevitably flay back, meaning when you spray it again it will look like crap. We'll fix this kind of stuff by "melting" the surrounding dip back down and smoothing it. There are a number of chemicals that will "melt" plasti dip, but I prefer to use good old mineral spirits because it's a little less "nasty" than some some of the others (many people use paint thinner, but I prefer not to on my carbon bikes)

I take some spirits and pour it in a cup... put on my nitrile glove and dab my finger in it. Then I start rubbing the area I want to loosen up.

It may seem like at first you aren't doing anything, that's because mineral spirits isn't quite as powerful as something like paint thinner. Just keep rubbing and you'll see that the dip starts to slowly melt. Now start working over the area that has the tear slowly. You may need to get another dab of spirits on your finger, and sometimes for bigger discrepancies  it helps to use your fingernail to "help" move it where you want. Again, I can't stress it enough... you aren't trying to make it look good, you just want it to be even. When you feel like it's fairly smooth, give it some time to air dry. (Don't use your towel!) Now go back and rub around the area and see if you got it close.

In the picture above you can see I've done an "ok" job, but still need to go back over it a couple of times and smooth it out further.

Later on, much smoother now.

Once you've got things moderately well smoothed out, go back and add another layer or two of plasti dip to it. When you start adding more layers it should all start to come together nicer. Take your time with these final coats, because if you get more runs now, you've got to go back and start the smoothing steps over again.

Here's the last layer before putting it all back together. There are still a couple of imperfections, but you need to be standing right on top of the bike to see the majority of them.  I certainly could have gotten it better, but for a bike I'm going to beat up, I'm not going to stress too much over it.

Finishing up

Now that you're done with the spraying, it's time to remove the masking tape. You have to pay attention during this step or you're going to end up with tears. If you've put a good few layers on then your plasti dip has sealed over the tape, so just yanking it off will pull some of the dip you want to keep on the bike with it. I go over the edges of the tape with my xacto knife and try to make sure there is a clean break before I yank it off. A good trick for bottle cage bosses is to get the xacto underneath one side and use the sharp edge to both lift and cut at the same time.

If you need to do touch up (either now or later on) the best solution I've found is to spray some plasti dip into a cup (enough for it to pool up) and use a cheap paint brush (a small one, like for painting a picture) to fill in whatever is missing. You'll have to add a layer (it'll probably be watery) let it dry and repeat a couple of times, but that's best for small issues. For larger rips, you really need to mask off a large area and smooth the edges/re spray it. Keep in mind any time you touch up big areas it will not match, with plasti dip you pretty much have to spray the entire bike to get it to look even again. Just something to keep in mind.

So, here's what I ended up with

The total cost, if you include all the "extra's" (most of which I had laying around the house) was about $40, and I still had about 190 extra gloves, some extra trash bags, 50 or so extra plastic cups, most of a gallon of mineral spirits, 2 microfiber towels and part of a can of dip left over.

Hopefully that got you through the crash course on dipping your bike. If you've got any questions, feel free to shoot me a message!

Thanks so much for taking the time to check it out!

- Christopher Morelock

How To: Going 1x - Removing a riveted FD

Another how to! It's been a while but now that things are slowing down again (I missed track state championship because of some work interference...boo) I can get back to tinkering with things. And this week we'll dive right in to something I have seen some people mention doing or thinking about doing, but that maybe you are a bit timid about tackling yourself.

First, let's get the disclaimer out of the way. If you screw your frame up, that's on you. No manufacturer recommends doing this, and neither do I. But if it's something you are considering doing, you might has well have a guide to reference. Also note this is done on a Speed Concept, so YMMV from manufacturer to manufacturer. My guess is that all of them riveted on are done basically the same way, but who knows.

Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, let's address the inevitable question of "why."
I'm not going to try to convince you. If you found this post through searching, you have already read more than I can put into words here. If you just stumbled on this and are rolling your eyes thinking "what a waste of time" then nothing I can say will change your mind. That's not my intent anyways. So, let's get on with it.

Alright, so you are planning to remove your front derailleur and go "permanently" 1x. The simplest way to do this (besides buying a 1x bike) is just to de-cable and/or remove your front derailleur. Now (unless you have a clamp on style, in which case you're done) it's a matter of what kind of derailleur hanger your bike is equipped with. A couple of my bikes just had bolt on hangers, which is obviously best for this kind of stuff, since two bolts and you're done. My old P3sl has the hanger welded to the frame, and so even though the P3 is on track duty it's still got it's hanger. Some day I may grind it off, but I hate to as that is VERY permanent. Most (at least TT / Tri) bikes now are something closer to "semi-permanently" mounted to the bike. That is, riveted. That's the case with most of the carbon cervelo's, and, more importantly to me, my Speed Concept.

So, what does "semi-permanently" mean? It means you're going to have to do some "surgery" to get it off, but that you could re-install it at a later date with minimal work if you changed your mind. For that you'd need a rivet gun (yes, like you'd get at Harbor Freight for ~$5) and the corresponding pop rivets, but it's not a job out of the reach of a home mechanic.

So, the thing is riveted (and also glued) to the frame. So what do we need to get it off? I used
- Electric handheld drill w/drill bits (a couple of sizes)
- heat gun (not necessary but makes life easier, a blow dryer might work)
- hammer
- punch (could improvise with hex keys or something similar)
- screwdriver/something to pry hanger off.

Now, before we get into it too deep, it's important to understand the design of the rivet holding it on and how to get it out. What you'll see is what looks like a button head bolt, except there is just a hole in it instead of a place for a tool to remove it.

This is a rivet. Everything below the dome is out of sight when installed. The outer straight piece is broken off when installing the rivet.

this handy diagram I borrowed off the net shows how the rivet is installed. #3 is how it looks in your frame.

Now that we have an idea of how they got the rivet in, let's get to work on getting it out.

We'll break this FD removal into steps.
1.) Drill off the cap heads
2.) Punch out the rivet
3.) Heat the hanger
4.) Pry the hanger off
5.) Get rid of the debris

Step 1: Drill off the cap head
This one is pretty simple, you can expedite this process by starting with a bigger bit from the get-go, but it's best for "first timers" to start slow. Grab your drill bits and find one a little larger than the hole in the rivet. Drill into the head a little bit (as you can see in the diagram, the cap is not deep, you don't need to go any farther than where the cap lines up with the frame.) The reason I suggest starting with only a slightly bigger bit than the hole for now is that if you drill too deep, you just drill into the rivet itself, whereas if you start with a very big bit you may start drilling out the frame if you go too deep. That said, you will have to move to a bigger bit, maybe a couple of times. Just take it slow, repeat until the cap head breaks loose. Now, either repeat this step for each rivet before moving on, or move on to step two and repeat each step for each rivet.

You may want to throw something over the ring/chain as you'll get shavings everywhere.

Step 2: Punch out the rivet
Ok, so the head is off. Now we need to get the inside of the rivet out of the way. With the head off the easiest way is to grab your punch / makeshift punch (I actually used a hex key because it was laying beside me while I was doing it and I'm lazy. Anything hard, straight, that you don't mind whacking with a hammer and that will fit is perfect.) stick it in the hole you have made by removing the head of the rivet, and tapping it with your trusty hammer. It shouldn't take too much force to knock it back into the frame (so you know, be careful hammering really hard or you could literally punch all the way through the frame! That would be bad.)  The easiest way to get the trash out of the frame is removing the seatpost, turning the bike over and shaking a few times. If you are really lucky and have a larger hole at the bottom of the frame they might come out there on their own.

Now, repeat this until you have all the rivets removed.

Step 3: Heat the Hanger
Now, you can try to remove the hanger before this step. Depending on what kind of adhesive they used besides the rivets, it may come off with only minor amounts of prying. On the Trek they used some epoxy, so it really needed heated to loosen it up a little bit. Like everything else, take your time, a heat gun gets REALLY hot really fast. You just want to warm the hanger and adhesive below it up up, not turn it white hot. When in doubt, go slow, you can always turn the heat gun back on.

heat it up, don't burn it up

Step 4: Pry the hanger off
Alright, so it's time to take remove the hanger. Your method of prying it off may differ. I used my screwdriver, stuck it through the opening in the hanger (where the derailleur mounts) and pried it off. It took minimal force. You could also probably do it with pliers or any other things. Use some caution and common sense... the hanger is probably metal, and you just warmed it... so grabbing it with your hand is a bad idea.

Step 5: Get rid of the debris
If you haven't gotten rid of the back half of the rivet (now in your frame) this is the time to do it. If you remove the seatpost make sure to mark where it was for reinstallation. It's possible that if you took off a little outer layer of paint/material when you pried off the hanger you'll need to sand it down to even to prevent further fraying. In the picture below you can see in my case the glue took a little bit with it when removed.  Not a big deal, but also not for the feint of heart. This is also the time when you should figure out how you're going to dress it up now. I went cheapo mode and just painted the area black... but you could get creative and make it look considerably nicer (something I may do down the road)

Removed! Semi Perma 1x

Is it worth doing? It depends. For me, I like to tinker on stuff, like smooth lines (no hanger sticking out) and obsess over any potential aero gains. Are there any? Most likely some, and some reports suggest that the hanger itself is the biggest portion of that drag. Whats a few watts mean to you? Again, hard to answer, a lot of us spend a lot of money for a watt or two... so doing something (relatively) cheap/free seems like a good bang for your buck. Again, not suggesting it's for everyone, but if you're going to tackle it, here's a way that worked well for me!

 Thanks so much for reading, I really appreciate it!

- Christopher Morelock

How To: Install Osymetric Chainrings

No doubt, the most popular thing I have ever posted has been my review on Osymetric Rings. In this post I won't be speaking to any of the three camps that exist  on them (Camp A. has no opinion, Camp B. Classifies them as Snake Oil, or even worse... Biopace... and Camp C is the hype beast.) but we'll just be looking at the technical aspect of installing them and getting them to shift properly. Worth noting is that I have the original Osymetric's, not the new/improved model that should have better shifting due to their ramps. Mine are just two flat sheets of metal!

First lets talk about what you get. Besides the rings themselves, you'll get a FD wedge spacer or two (for use if your derailleur is too low and needs to be moved up and back.) and some small washers for use to spread the cage of your front derailleur if you end up with bad chain rub.  You should leave all of this stuff alone for now. Don't start using these parts until it becomes obvious that you need to. The less extra stuff you need to add on the better your setup will end up.

included shims

There's nothing particularly special about installing the rings onto the crank, there is a small screw and pin that are installed on the large ring before going any further, but otherwise no challenges. There is talk as to what position you should set your rings up in... There are many opinions as to whether the "recommended" setting is optimal (most of this comes from the study on non-round rings) and I'll let you research / decide for yourself, it shouldn't effect the actual installation. For what it's worth, in my opinion for a TT or Tri bike you should leave it as it's supposed to be installed, (numbers hidden by crank arm) and possibly adjust the position for a road bike. YMMV of course.

rings installed... with a little optional bling...

Once the rings are installed it's time to figure out if you are going to need the FD spacer. Of course if you are installing yours on a bike with a clamp on front derailleur you will probably not need the spacer as you have all the room in the world to work with. That isn't most Tri/TT bikes though, so lightly tighten your holding bolt on the FD at what eyeballs as the right height and give the crank a spin. You should have the requisite "penny width" between the outer cage and the outer ring (at it's tallest/closest point... look close, it isn't exactly at 12 o clock.) and you should also have plenty of clearance at the back of the derailleur.  (It's possible the chainring will hit the bottom of the cage if you don't have it right.) You should also probably give the front derailleur a hand shift, as what looks like plenty of clearance in the small ring may be not quite enough in the big ring. Shifting up and down from here is a good idea, as you'll pretty quickly figure out whether or not you've got it close.

It's possible that with your bikes setup you will need additional spacers (again, primarily this is an issue for the bigger chainrings) and the best of these is made by Rotor for their Q-rings. These angled spacers will help solve some of the headaches you might run into (again, chain rubbing bottom of FD in small/small is common. Without this angled spacers it's tough to get the back of the FD down enough while still keeping the outer cage high enough to clear the big ring.) Of course you shouldn't be in small/small combo ever anyway, but sometimes things happen.

Rotor's combo pack... although  a longer bolt is going to be necessary for the bigger one.

I also highly recommend installing a inner chain keeper. (I use K-edge, but perfectly fine cheaper options are out there) Yes, I know many people say it's not necessary, but in my opinion there are often times the chain has a longer than normal amount of distance to drop (like if you start shifting down at the largest part of the pedal stroke and the chain lands at the smallest of the small ring...) and there have been times even with a keeper and "clutching" I've felt like I got lucky not to throw the whole thing. It has certainly sounded like all hell breaking loose.  Of course, a keeper has it's own risks, as it is certainly "possible" to drop the chain between the frame and the keeper if it's not perfectly set (it may be "possible" even then under the right conditions) This is one of the reasons I moved away from my Osy's in 2013, after having a dropped chain in a big race at the end of the season. That was on my Planet X, and that particular day/race I had other mechanical problems which almost certainly directly contributed to that dropped chain, but nonetheless it was enough for me to pull the plug on it at the time. (Call that full'ish disclosure) Back on topic however...

chain keeper installed to keep the chain in the right spot

Once that's squared away, it's time to get the chain on and check that that hasn't messed anything up in the FD area. Again, the primary thing you are looking for at this point is whether the chain will move down from the big ring without getting stuck between the outer cage and the ring.

Also make sure if you have a braze on hanger, the front of the FD cage is not hitting it. This is something that can happen if you raise the FD to near the max height without using any spacers. This is easy to miss at this step but will cause a lot of headaches later if you don't check.

Small ring

Big Ring

Now you are ready to cable your derailleurs as normal. I took the above pictures after already cabling my bike, and like an idiot didn't get a picture of me checking the limit screws on the front derailleur beforehand. To do this I stick a long T-handle allen wrench behind the front of the derailleur (between the inner cage and the frame) and leverage it out to the large ring. (You could also do it by hand but I personally find it awkward to try to turn the crank and move the FD at the same time) You'll know very quickly whether you need to bring in (or out) the limit screws, just make 1/8 or 1/4 turns of the limit screw and try again until you get it close. You can fine tune after you get it cabled.

After you get everything cabled and adjusted you'll likely have to decide whether you want to spread the front derailleur cage or not. (If your FD allows for it)  On the one hand, adding the spacers to spread it can often eliminate some rub in certain gear combinations (mostly crosschaining, but some gears I wouldn't exactly consider meet that criteria) but on the other hand, you are spreading your derailleur cage, which *probably* won't effect shifting up/down, but could in theory.  Personally, I don't add the spacers any more. The first time I set them up I did. In both cases they rubbed some, so I don't see any reason to add it unless you are rubbing in very straight chainline gear combinations.

Now do a little test shifting and make sure you've got everything smooth. With a little time I can get mine to shift very smoothly, and again, that's without any ramps... I'm sure the new ones are much nicer.

A lot of these steps are likely unnecessary if you've picked a more common size of rings. You certainly won't run into any more difficulty than you will on this size combo, so hopefully this is fairly comprehensive. My advice is to not use any "extra" small parts you don't absolutely need when setting them up.

Hopefully this post will help you out if you searched it up having trouble with installation.  I am still a pessimist when it comes to the % power increase that gets claimed, but I also think there is some merit to non-round rings other than more watts. Maybe in the future we'll revisit my old review of them with some updated thoughts.

Thanks for reading! I've been messing with this post for a while now and just seem to keep getting side tracked! Until Next time!

-Christopher Morelock