Bike in a (small) box

I had my first ride with the new Ti travel bike on Sunday, with Gunjira and Gueorgui.  We headed out Onekan, then the "tank road" and the north shore of Tsukui-ko, and then Pref Route 517 to Magino/Pref Route 76.  There Gueorgui and I headed back in on Pref Route 76/Route 20 over Otarumi and via Takao.  A frisky Gunjira powered on via Route 76 over to Doshi Michi and for some additional exploration.

The new bike rides very nicely -- everything works like a charm, with the new SRAM Red shifting and braking very precise in feeling.  It takes much less effort with my hands to brake or shift with the SRAM groupset.  There is a huge difference from the Dura Ace/Ultegra mix on the Canyon in the amount of effort needed to shift the front derailleur from small to big ring -- just a light tap of the paddle with my fingers on the SRAM, an effort using every muscle in my hand on the Shimano (.. maybe it is time for new shifter front derailleur cable, inner and outer).

The frame itself feels ... like Titanium, very alive, never harsh, and with good power transfer.

My only current complaint with the bike and set up is the 30.6mm seat post I selected.  A beefy FSA post for a mountain bike, it seems to be designed so that the bolts tighten with the saddle either 2 degrees tilting forward or 2 tilting back, never flat.  I may need to replace it.

And there were a few times, in the extreme heat and humidity, climbing 10% plus grades on Route 517, when I began to think it might be a good idea to swap in a compact crank for the Pyrenees.

This evening, I tried to see if I could pack the bike into its "backpack style" case.

The bike; The 26"x26"x10" case

Brake cable splitter. 

The bike needs to be separated into quite small pieces to fit in this kind of case.  I will need to allow some extra time for packing and unpacking, as compared with the Biknd case.  And I will need to figure out if I can do a less complete dis-assembly and still fit it, while minimizing risk of damage.

Bike in pieces

It was easy to fit the pieces into the case after watching Leonard Zinn do it, though I do not have a detachable link in my chain.  Now I just need to figure out how to secure, protect and avoid losing any of the various pieces.  I think I will start with some large plastic bags.  The bike, case and tools weigh just over 12 kgs.  ... so lots of room for other gear as padding before bumping up against weight limits.

UPDATE -- NEXT DAY:

It took me about 50 minutes to put the bike back together.  I needed to attach the rear derailleur to the dropout 4 times -- a couple times to get the cables routed properly, then once to get the derailleur positioned correctly, then finally I needed to take it off so the chain could reach far enough forward to slip it through the downtube coupler since it turned out the chain was hooked over to the wrong side it.  I'll get the hang of it with a little practice and hope eventually for sub-30 minute assembly or dis-assembly.

Comparing the bottom bracket (BB) with the SRAM Rival groupset on the Yamabushi, I realized that when I built the Ti bike up I mistakenly put some spacers on the GXP bottom bracket, based on the SRAM/Truvativ BB instructions for a 68mm BB shell ...  I read online instructions which suggest that the spaces are only for use with an MTB crankset.  Without the spacers the crank and bolts tighten properly and snugly, and still spin without friction.

After looking at the GPS tracks of our proposed route in the Pyrenees, this evening after dinner I swapped out the SRAM Red 53/39 crankset for my SRAM Rival 46/36 crankset (cyclocross gearing), taken off the Yamabushi.  At least with this crank, I don't need to change the BB (as I would if I used the Shimano 50/34 compact.  I think I will be much happier on the long climbs with 36/28 gearing than I would have been with 39/28.  And 46/11 is a big enough gear for this kind of non-competitive tour.

In other good news, after another 3 or 4 adjustments, I finally managed to get the saddle to be nearly horizontal on the FSA 30.6mm seatpost.

UPDATE - January 2013:

I replaced the MTB seatpost with a regular road 27.2 seatpost (Cinelli, basic aluminum model) and a sleeve that fills the gap between 27.2 and 30.6mms.  With a 27.2 seatpost the ride feels more compliant.  I think for sprinting and racing the 30.6 is probably better, but for long rides and comfort, I like the 27.2 post setup.

I also want to replace the shallow drop Deda bars (44cm outside-to-outside) with a set of the Ritchey WCS or Pro anatomical bend (44cm center-to-center) bars that I like on my Canyon and the Yamabushi.