Finished, minor sacrifce

The bike is done. Maybe a little fine tuning, and need to do a final test ride tomorrow, but it is done. Picked up a used FD, added a shim, realigned it when I realized it was too close to the wheel, and swapped out the twist shifters for trigger shifters. (They were on sale for $25 or so when I stopped by Performance Bike last weekend, and I like them better.)

Getting the FD to shift correctly was a real headache. The RD shifted almost perfectly from the start, and took a mere 30 seconds to have set up. Since the trigger shifts have the brake levers as well, it did take a little bit to set up. I might still need to adjust the brakes after I try them out on the road though.

Of course, it is not stock. (The shifters are closer to stock, might even be better than stock) One key difference is the crankset. I am using a 48t big ring, where the original only used a 42t. Now, I like this, because (while I forgot the specs on the rear freewheel) it gives a performance boost. Assuming from the spec list from the Mongoose that it has a 14-28t freewheel, the stock ratios would be 1.5x~3x and the 48 gives me 1.7x~3.4x or about 13% more distance per pedal rotation. (Considering the top gear before I got the FD installed was a 38, I had a 10% drop from stock when in the middle gear vs the original top gear, and about a 26% increase with the large ring compared to the middle.)

Not accounting for wind and rolling resistance, the bike still won't have quite the speed of my road bike (4.3x ratio, and 700c wheels instead of 26") but should be on par with my fixie, which runs a 3.14 ratio at the moment.

Now, moving from a 42t to 48t did have one issue. Because of the larger chainring, the FD had to be moved higher. In doing so, the second bottle cage can not be mounted. (Well, it can, but it blocks the FD from the lowest gear.) I still have one bottle cage mounted, and it really shouldn't be an issue for most rides. The sacrifice of a second cage against the gear increase is worth it to me.

I plan to put the bike though its paces again tomorrow, before it gets much colder. Being Ohio though, the cold is coming either way.