Anticipation

Aside from seeing a movie with the family ("Frozen", slow start but then it improved), I spent much of today finally lining up some parts for my next build. After my experience with the Krampus, I've been kind of 29+ obsessed lately. Finally, here was something new and different that I could sink my teeth into: not just a lighter widget, like my idea for a carbon frame, but a bike that truly made a difference in riding. Fun but also low tech, a good combination.

After some internal debate between a Krampus frameset and Carver Gnarvester, I settled on the third choice: see what I could do with my Niner SIR9. I won an auction today for a never used pair of Knards, almost two for the price of one, which set off my chain of buying:



- a Velocity P35 wheelset. I debated about going whole hog with a Rabbit Hole wheelset, but these were less than half the cost and about a pound lighter. While the rim is about 15mm narrower than the 50mm RH rim, reports say they work OK with the Knard tire.

- I already have a Deore hydro brake set coming in, my first real experience with hydraulic brakes

- Unrelated to the 29+ thing, I also just ordered a Sella Anatomica saddle for my CC (half off Christmas special!)
 
So this evening, I spent some time in the garage getting things ready for my new bits.

My Salsa Fargo V2 fork will fit a Knard (see here for instance), and it might technically be possible to fit a Knard on the back of the SIR. There's a lot of clearance back here:

I measure about 76mm of clearance. Surly says a Knard on a 35mm rim is about 73mm wide. Maybe it would squeeze in there, but not really enough clearance for riding. So, I'll either try a Knard on a regular rim (not really recommended), or see what the fatter rim does to my 2.4 Vee Mission tire. Or just end up heading to the Trek store for a Krampus frame.

I put on my H bars to get ready to run the hydro lines:

I don't plan to use H bars for my initial build, but this will dictate the longest length for the brake hoses. This will result in some extra length with regular bars, but I want to be able to change bars up easily. I have the other parts ready to go on:

Bontrager riser bar with an oversized stem (I'm grudgingly giving in to 31.8 bars and stems), an 11-34 eight speed cassette, shifted with an old thumbie and a short cage rear derailer. The N-gear jumpstop will keep the chain on. The "Sam" license plate will go on Sam's bike, of course.

Now to wait.