The B1 Project Part II: Kinky Bars and Lost Bearings

So I finally figure out the shim job. I have all the parts. Now I just need to throw together the B1 and I will have my very own TT rocketship.

I figure the first step is to put on my new kinky aerobars – fresh from the dirt cheap bin at the mail order catalog. But first, since I have the damn thing almost apart I might as well overhaul the headset right? So I pull the fork out and hear something vaguely like dry bearings bouncing all over a concrete floor – I look down and low and behold – IT IS dry bearings bouncing all over the concrete floor.

WTF? I new the top bearings were sealed in a cartridge – who the hell combines sealed cartridge bearings on top with loose bearings on the bottom? Apparently our good friends at Cane Creek, that’s who. Rookie mistake – should have seen that one coming. Well I pick up all the bearings I can find, there are 23, that doesn’t seem quite right. Time for another trip to the bike shop.

I head to the closest bike shop (besides Reed’s, but I can’t go there because they sponsor the evil empire – and I am bitter because he beat me in Emmett last year). I go to Meridian Cycles, buy some bearings, chat about the ‘affordable’ Zipp 404’s and head back home. Good shop, I will go back.

So a fist full of bearings, some grease, and kinky bars and I am one step closer…