Beastie gets a face-lift
After some hand-wringing and changing my mind a few times, I dove in and went through a fairly major upgrade of my faithful steed. The old tires went on a new set of disc-capable wheels, but sans the tubes. The tubeless conversion shaved a full 2 pounds from the rotating weight of each tire. The difference in the ride is very noticeable - smoother, easier to get the bike moving.
The old gears and shifter mechanisms were removed and replaced with a single speed setup with 32:20 ratio. It is a perfect fit for the type of riding I like to do.
Finally, the old canti brakes, on which I'd been having some alignment and excess wear issues for a few months, were removed in favor of F/R hydraulic disc brakes. I had to purchase a special after-market mount that allowed the rear brake calipers to bolt to the frame, which was originally designed for coaster brakes. All in all, a lot of work, but the fruits of my labor were O So Sweet as the upgraded bike got its Trial by Fire on a 16 mile woodland river trail today. The new gear arrangement is much quieter than the old 7-speed arrangement. The whole conversion stripped 4.8 pounds from the weight of the bike, bringing it down to 39.6 pounds. Not exactly svelte, but worthwhile. The last pic shows Beastie along the swollen New River in southern WV, USA.
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