Lynskey Sportive Di2C

EightOhEight

What saddlebag is that. Need a new small one that attaches to the rails and post like that. lost a rails only one recently...

ledeev

The saddlebag is a (Shimano) Pro Stradius mini. It's got a quick release clip and a velcro strap on it and is nice and secure. I bought it 4 years ago and it's been on my summer bike every since. Capacity inside isn't great. I can get a CO2 canister, CO2 canister adaptor and a tube and that's in all there. Not sure how I'll squeeze a Di2 battery in there as well.

spasypaddy

battery above the lights for me. dont try and cram it into the saddle bag

ledeev

Why and how?

spasypaddy

cos you'll lose the important space in your saddle bag.

rivet it on! then you can drill a tiny whole for the cable to come out

ledeev

Wouldn't it be a lot easier to get a bigger saddlebag and shove it in there? There's already a hole in the top of the seatpin that the wire for the rear light goes in. I can't see how there'd be space for the battery on the seatpin as well.

ledeev

I dismantled and rebuilt my front wheel with the new dynamo hb last night. As predicted the spokes are the same length as those needed for the XT centre-lock hub. A fairly straightforward build made a lot more diffcult by the unwillingnss of the hub to spin with the generator inside. Unfortunately, when the wheel was in the fork, the non-gear side spokes snagged on the brake caliper, so I've had to dish the wheel a bit to give some clearance. I may even move the rotor out with some 1mm washers, but this doesn't quite feel like the right thing to do. Annoying. I guess that not many people run X2 calipers with 160mm rotors, road wheels and dynamo hubs yet.



I really like the design of the centre-lock disc rotor and was a bit disappointed that Shimano have had to beef up the alloy carrier for the 6-bolt version so much.



I also fitted my front light in readiness for the clocks changing soon. This is an uber-quality bit of kit and is SOLID! Seems to work okay too and I'm looking forward t giving it a road test.

ledeev

I spent this evening wiring in the rear light to my dynamo system. The strategy was to relocate the Di2 battery to the saddlebag (after turfing out my spare tube and CO2 canister) and route the power cable down the downtube and into the frame via the hole vacated by the battery wire.

Easy enough, but it meant that the bottom bracket and cranks had to be removed.

I had a spare 1400mm Di2 wire, which I threaded into the top of the seat post and then into the frame. After a bit of fiddling about the wires popped out and I managed to plug them in. I decided to use a 'chocolate block' to connect the two ends of the rear light cable, the reason being that only the bare ends would fit through the hole in the frame and I didn't want to have to chop off the fancy connector should I even need to remove the light. It's all inside so fingers crossed it won't come loose or break.



Shoving this lot inside was a bit tricky, but it's neater than it was before.



I then hooked up the Di2 battery the the harness and tidied the wires around the saddle area.



And then attached the cable to the brake hose using cable-ties.




I hate how all these cable-ties look and might re-do it with insulation tape or heat-shrink soon.

The forecast is for torrential rain tomorrow, so it'll be interesting to see how the bike performs.

spasypaddy

very impressed! looks neat and tidy

ledeev

Thanks!

Those cable ties really bother me though. I need to fit a spacer to the front rotor too, the spokes still catch on the caliper when out of the saddle.

Finally rode the bike in the pouring rain today. It all performed fine and I like the shape of the beam from the headlamp.

ledeev

I've now covered approximately 200 miles on the Lynskey, and I'm getting happier with the specification of it now.

I finally did a proper ride in the proper dark last night. I'm really impressed with the quality and performance of the Supernova lights. The beam shape is great and no motorists flashed their lights at me meaning that it doesn't dazzle either. Judging from the fact that I didn't get run over, I guess that the rear one must work quite well as well.

A major annoyance is the front disc, or rather the clearance of the spokes on the caliper. I've filed off some of the adaptor and fitted a 1mm rotor spacer, but it needs to be even more than that. The brakes too must have some kind of foul weather sintered pad in them as they have a terrible noise and score the pads but the performance isn't the same as the same calipers that I run on my MTB. I'll look to change this soon.

It's good to have mudguards, given the amount of rain we've had!

wastegate86

Do you mean an ear bleeding squeeling noise when pad hits rotor?
My bb7 setup use to make aweful noises in the wet
However my hyrd's have been almost totally silent so far in drizzle all the way up to heavy downpour

ledeev

No, its more like the noise when you drag a bag of gravel along a path. The pads are a different type to the standard MTB ones which don't make any noise. Think I'll ping Hope an email and see what they say.

spasypaddy

can you take some photos at night showing how good the lights are please?

i love this build. so practical!

ledeev

Errr, not easily, they go dim when you're not going along. The stand-light lasts for a few minutes but it's not very bright.

I'll have to set the rollers up on the patio or something.

wastegate86

ha that must be interresting if you get stuck at dark junction

love the clean look of the relocated battery
Not rolling any bottle cages then?

ledeev

It's not really a problem, they go dim but they don't go out. They come back on as soon as I start moving. I've fitted an auxiliary rear light so I can be seen when stopped. For me the dynamo is a better solution than worrying about whether the lights are going to go out at any minute.

I've got a pair of welded Ti cages to go on. Was holding off fitting them in case I needed to relocate the Di2 battery back to the downtube.

I weighed the bike yesterday, all up with everything it tips the scales at 28lb.

ledeev

I rode down to see my mum on the Lynskey last week and halfway this happened:



It must've gone after hitting a bump or something because the first thing I knew about it was when the rattling of the clamp got worse and worse and WORSE. Scary really, as there doesn't seem to be a great amount of material where the fracture has happened.

Oh well, should have bought a Thomson in the first plce, which is what I'm now going to do. Silver or black, X2 or X4, decisions. Black X4 I think. 4 bolt stems are my new best friend.

ledeev

I've finally got round to fitting my X4 stem, looks a bit more industrial than I thought it would, but it suits the bike.

ledeev

One thing that has always annoyed me about the Lynskey is that the buttons are the wrong way round and it's counter-intuitive compared to the mechanical STI units.

As I'm Di2ing my other bikes, I decided to update the firmware on my Di2 system with a EW90-B and internal charger system.




It's all straight-forward with Shimano's excellent software and it was very easy to alter all the buttons to do whatever I wanted them to do. There is even an option for mult-shift on the RD. I set this to full auto and normal speed.

When I put everything back together the RD was only shifting singles and, after a lot of plugging and unplugging, I found out that the battery mount wasn't being recognised by the software and looks to be defective, in spite of it working with the Di2 system as a standalone just fine. After an internet search, it seems like other people with Di2 have encountered this problem so hopefully it's a warranty job.

In spite of this, this was an easy fix for a major annoyance and am looking forward to the morning commute to try it out.

spasypaddy

the link kit is a piece of awesome isnt it?

im really tempted to let my mate drill my CAAD9 frame and run my di2 internally...

ledeev

Yes, it turns a good system into a great one.

Think I might try the multi shift in slow rather than normal tomorrow. It's a bit violent for commuting.

Drilling for internal? You're a braver man than I but yes, why not. I'm going to do my Soloist and P3C internal over the next few weeks.

spasypaddy

would need to buy front harness like yours and internal battery.

its so tempting!

I like the multi shift on normal, i tried it on slow and it didnt react quick enough. Now ive got used to it on normal.

shame my TT bike cant have multishift on it

ledeev

My Lynskey has the old Junction B harness and external battery and internal wiring. I plugged the new Junction B in to reprogrammed, then unplugged it. After I'd swapped out the faulty battery pack it seems to work.

Couldn't you borrow a new Junction B and charger to reprogram your TT bike?

spasypaddy

no my TT bike runs the old di2 so cant be upgraded

ledeev

It's been a while since I posted anything about my Sportive, so I thought I'd share an update.

Basically, I've been unglamourously riding the Lynskey to and from work all winter, and apart from the stem fiasco, only three noteworthy things have happened.

1) The anodising has rubbed off the driveside crank, quite badly too. I feel vindicated on my conservative crank choice!


2) I shredded the rear GP4000 on some gravel so swapped it for some nasty rubber I had in my spares box.

3) I whacked something metallic on the A38 in the dark and not only shredded the other GP4000, but also put an impressive dent in the rim. A quick fettle on the wheel jig and it's as good as new, apart from being dented.


It desperately needs a service as the transmission is totally black. It still shifts almost perfectly though! A spell of good weather means I can take my time and do a proper job.

My new front XT dynamo hub has arrived, so a task to do over the summer is to rebuild that hub on to my dented rim and lace up a set of grey H plus sons.

The light was really good tonight, so I took the opportunity to take a sultry sunset shot of the bike on the beach.

DiscoBoy

Shame about the rub on the crank. Use some heli tape next time

ledeev

Good idea. Dammit, wish I'd thought of that six months ago.

DiscoBoy

Ledeev wrote:

Good idea. Dammit, wish I'd thought of that six months ago.

It is magical stuff

So, which chainset are you going to swap that one for?

ledeev

I'm going to leave these on until I wear through to the other side.

I've just put some dark anodised cranks on my Van Nich, and to be honest I'm not sure if I like the look.