Old School Silvio 1.0 upgrade

Mark B

Zen MBB Master
I know I'm several years late to this party, but I thought it was high time to try something different on my Silvio 1.0.

While saving my pennies for a newer Silvio, I decided I should probably give the higher bottom bracket the old college try to make sure I would even like it. Defjack was nice enough to loan my his 100mm extension that was gathering dust, so I decided to see how it would run.

Since this was just a trial, I decided I would only install the extension and a new chain and see how it goes. I didn't really want to change much else. In order to get comfortable on it, I had to bring the telescoping top tube back in, toward me, which meant I also had to bring the handlebar in, just a touch. I really couldn't get it in as far as I wanted to because of cables/housing limitations. I got it to where I thought it was livable, though.

I took the first ride on it Saturday morning. I didn't get very far from home when I realized I was still overreaching for the pedals, which caused a little more pedal steer than I was comfortable with. I could feel the pull in my calves as I was stretching through the revolutions. Realizing my cable/housing limitations, I questioned in my own mind if it was really worth the effort to try much farther. Then, I noticed the bike seemed to have a little more wheel flop than normal. In short, at this point, I kind of hated it.

I continued pedaling and I did notice I was running in a gear or maybe two higher than normal, but I didn't think too much about it. Actually, I was too busy trying to keep the stupid thing in a reasonably straight line. I got on a busy street that ordinarily wouldn't give me a second thought and I did not care for the proximity to the cars with my high speed weaving style of riding.

On the way home, there is one slight incline that I usually like to really push myself on to gauge my progress. I figured this was a good opportunity for gauging, so I poured the coals to it. Man, I was pushing on this incline a lot better than normal. Not for long, but just for a minute.

It wasn't a long ride, maybe only 35 miles and part of it in stop and go city traffic. I didn't really think my average speed would be anything special, but lo and behold, it was a good 1.5 mph faster than what I have been riding!

Now, I know there are a lot of things that might have contributed to that kind of gain. My test was not very scientific. Heck, it wasn't scientific, at all, but it was enough for me to decide to go for it. I tore my bike down yesterday afternoon and started on the rebuild.

It's nothing fancy, since this is still just a test. I decided to keep this low buck as possible. I'm running nine speed Shimano, so I stole a wheel off my son's old bike. While I was at it, I stole the cranks (RX-100 53-39 double) and bottom bracket. Well, now that I went this far, I just as well steal the derailleurs (Dura Ace front and 600 rear). I was actually pretty surprised at how light that old school stuff was. No wonder that little turd was always so fast! Shifting was to be handled by a pair of Microshift flat bar shifters.

I have it mostly back together, but I did run into a couple snafus The shifters would not fit my Origin 8 Gary bar. I ended up ordering some Shimano bar ends that are supposed to be here Wednesday. We shall see. I already have the Paul Thumbies mounted, so it will go together quickly, from there. I was also halted by the fact my stolen wheel needs some rim tape and I had none.

If anybody is interested, I will post pictures of the bike when it's done.

Mark
 
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