California - Day 3 TsunamiTwo!

So, last night, finally, I got my TsunamiTwo frame. I'd started waiting at about 8 AM (the FedEx genie said the frame got on a truck at 7:10 AM).

I waited and waited and waited. I didn't dare do anything in case I missed the frame. I took the quickest shower in the world. I peed really fast. I didn't dare put myself in a situation where I'd be unavailable for 45 seconds and the FedEx guy would ring the doorbell, shrug, turn around, and walk back to his truck.

So I waited. And waited. And waited.

And finally, just before 5 PM, the doorbell rang.

I ran and opened it.

A guy in khaki slacks, white shirt, some brown/tan kind of tie, and fancy brown dress shoes looked at me.

I looked at him. Looked past him. FedEx truck. Looked back at him.

I started thinking, "FedEx really dresses up nowadays."

Then I thought maybe he was the driver's boss.

But then he asked for our host's daughter's friend.

Oh. It's her dad.

But what was the FedEx truck doing at the curb then?

I frowned, looking at the truck.

Watched a guy climbed out the back of the truck. He wore FedEx clothes. He had a big box in his hand.

Ha!

I quickly opened the box, with my host's son's help (he quickly retrieved a pocket knife from somewhere, a bit worrying since he's all of 5 years old). He respected the knife though and stayed away from it once I started cutting tape.

The frame popped out pretty quickly.

It still smelled of paint. It's all good.

With a 5 year old's help the foam packing stuff came off.

Padding off.
Grubby fingerprints courtesy grubby fingered but very happy new owner.
Note spare dropout. Also note bare 5 year old boy's foot in right corner.

I didn't realize why the string was there until I noticed it went between the two cable housing holes in the top tube. I'll be running full length housing in the top tube. I hope I have enough Nokons to run them through from end to end.

The dropout is a nice touch from Joseph. Since I had it shipped a little closer to his shop, his shipping costs shrank. He included (at my request) a spare dropout rather than us having to deal with refunds and stuff. I wouldn't be able to use a few bucks but not having a dropout could be bad news.

What's nice is that the dropout fits the Missus's bike too. They're good dropouts, secured by a chainring bolt. You can tighten it pretty well and not worry about stripping some wimpy allen head.

One thing that's noticeable is the frame's narrow tubing.

It's not as apparent as on other frames because the frame is so small, meaning small in height. But it's still noticeable.

(Although I plan on running no cages I will probably install a couple... but ideally I want to run with just a CamelBak, for "aero-ness". Along those lines I dragged the HED Jet6 and Jet9 wheels to California so I could run a "full aero" bike.)

Two things stand out on the frame when I hold the frame, at least to me.

Cut out seat tube.
Note the small hole below the front derailleur mount - it's for the front derailleur cable.

The first is the aero seat tube with the cutout for the tire. It's very nicely finished, any welds finished off smoothly and cleanly. I didn't expect that to be the case so I felt pleasantly surprised when I saw the smooth edges.

The second thing is the integrated seat post (ISP). It's kind of integrated - it's an aero seat tube with a round section of seat tube fit into the top of the front of the tube up front. It's welded in place with the welds so smoothly filed down that I couldn't tell where one tube ended and the next started.

There is a ridge where the seat tube ends, but for me that's just a character ridge. It's the ridge a few inches down from the top that runs around the front part of the seat tube.

I never thought of myself as an ISP type of owner, but when given the option by Joseph, I decided, what the heck. I decided to go with it.

The plan will be to have about 2.5 cm of post showing above the collar. I'd have a lot of room to drop the saddle if I got a sleek railed saddle, a short height clamp post, or even a low foot-to-axle pedal height.

Or all of the above.

If I go back to a 170 mm crank (I have no idea why I'd do that) then I'd raise it a bit.

I'd like to see if the collar from the Specialized frame will fit - it's Ti with a ti/aluminum nut/bolt. The ti collar would be a bit more sleek, if memory serves me correctly.

Ultimately, if this works out, and if Joseph can source an efficient tapered head tube with a 1.25" lower steerer tube, I'll be very aggressive with the next ISP. I'll run it within a few mm of the top of the usable post.

One big debate is what to do about a post. I don't want to have a full 400mm post in the integrated post area, so I'll cut a post down to minimal size. I decided when packing TsunamiOne that I'd cut the post on that bike - it's a full length post, not a 250mm post or whatever the shorter ones measure. There was a good 5 inches in my seat tube on the regular frame. There's a lot of post I don't need, so I'll be cutting my precious Thomson post later.

The integrated seat post.

A slightly different look at the seat tube.

You can see that it extends back between the chainstays.

Braze on front derailleur mount. Forces me to move away from an N-Gear Jumpstop.

I'd discussed the aero cable situation with Joseph during the planning phase. I knew how he'd approach the bottom of the downtube, but I didn't have solutions in place for the cables after that. Joseph had some creative ideas.

Note the open bit of downtube to the right.
There's also an open bit of seat tube to the left.

Joseph's solution? He brazed things so that there'd be a section of open tubing at the bottom of the seat tube (as well as the down tube). The cables come out the downtube, into the BB guide, and then head up into the seat tube (for the front derailleur) and out to the normal cable housing stop for the rear derailleur.

The cable entry points are nice and subtle. String hanging out of the top tube one.

The speckly paint is due to the pearl black. It's nice but doesn't like flashes.

A slightly better picture, this time of the right side.

You get an idea of the pearl vs speckle feel, meaning the paint is really black with a pearl coat, not a gritty dirty black frame.

A no flash shot. The bike looks "black".

Without a flash the pearl hides. The frame looks like it looks like in person. The pearl just glistens in the light. In the sun it ought to be great.

The BB30 shell is clean of any paint, ready for bearings.

Before I do anything I'll trial fit the wheels. Once I check that I'll go ahead and put in the BB30 bearings. I'm going to pay a shop to install the headset, then cut the fork myself. I'll be aggressive and cut it down to the bare minimum, just enough for the stem to grab. No spacer like the other fork (I didn't want to cut the fork in case I put it back in the aluminum Giant TCR, the frame that donated its Reynolds fork to the Tsunami.)

Then comes the commitment - I'll have to strip the TsunamiOne of its parts to build TsunamiTwo.

(I may start calling them T1 and T2 as typing it all out is a pain...)

The commitment comes from the fact that for a short time I won't have a bike to ride. Based on when I get the frame back I may do this Saturday or Sunday. By Monday I should be on T2.

At some point I weighed the frame. 1680 grams. 3.7 lbs. It's not the lightest but it's fine. It's about 500 grams (1.1 lbs) heavier than the Cannondale SystemSix, the lightest bike I ever had (15.5 lbs with tubulars). Since the components will be virtually identical to the SystemSix - they have to be since they came off that bike - I'm curious to see how the weight compares with the fork (should be light) and a cut down post.

If the bike gets under 17 lbs with tubulars it'll be close to the TsunamiOne. I'm thinking about this one saddle, I've used it before, it's about 100g lighter than the current one, about 0.2 lbs. I could go with the heat treated crit bars, also 100g lighter than the current bars I have.

That would be another 0.2 lbs.

Ugh. You can do this with almost any bike you have. I have to stop.

But I do own the heat treated crit bars, they're sitting at home. Maybe I'll do that later.

I've spent two days in California and have ridden, oh, maybe a quarter mile. I have some work to do.

Till then, ta ta.