I Miss My SS

Not that I could ride it anyway until my wrist is a bit better, but I miss the little beasty anyway. So, last night I spent some time building up the DiSSent. I got the BB, XT cranks, King headset, RST fork, stem and bars swapped over from the SS Monkey. Actually I grabbed the stem off of the Lev as it is a 100mm x 6* and I put the 110mm x 6* stem from the Monkey onto the Lev. I bit of an experiment there...strech me out on the Lev juuuust a bit and reel me in on the DiSSent juuuust a bit.

I noticed that the stem on the Monkey had nicked the coating on the carbon Easton bars. I do not own a torque wrench, but I really doubt I overtightened the stem plate. A bit of investigation showed marks on the bars only in the stem section, not the plate, so I ran my finger over the stem edge and found quite a sharp ridge there. Nice, Easton! Make a stem that will hurt your bars. Well, I should have checked it before I installed it. Lesson learned, I took some emery cloth wrapped in a dowel and removed the ridge in the casting.

I was curious to see how the 25.2" TT would end up with the 100mm stem, so I stuck the seatpost and saddle from the Monkey into the frame and got out the tape. The longer TT and the shorter stem resulted in a 3/4" longer cockpit. Excellent, I think. We shall see.

So now I need to order the brakes and seat post clamp before I can finish the build. But from there I have some plans. I am thinking about running an alternate bend/sweep bar, likely this one.

From there, the Thudbuster will go away to be replaced with a ti or carbon post for a nice ride. Next will be a new set of wheels, but for now I will use the slightly bent wheels from the SS Monkey.

The DiSSent will be a bit of a metamorphasis for a while. Hopefully I will end up with a decent butterfly out of this process. I may even try a rigid fork some day, but the reality of that may not apply to my aging wrists. I sure was shocked at how heavy the RST fork felt when I held it in my hands. A smoother riding, rigid fork and A Weirwolf 2.5 may be the deal or maybe not but I know I would like the weight loss. What I may do is look for another fork for the Lev like a new Reba or Fox F-100 and run the classic Reba at 80mm for the DiSSent. All in good time.

But first, it will roll out of the garage with some temp parts. I can't wait to see how the lighter and stiffer pedaling frame will feel and how the longer TT works out. And I can't wait to get back on that one geared contraption and find a trail somewhere.