When you’re as inept as I am that first ride after you’ve disassembled a hub is always a little scary, but I’m pleased to report there were no ass-plosions:
Sure, there was an Asplundh, but that’s about it:
[We like to say Spinergys ass-plode, but technically it’s the front wheel that ass-plodes, while the rear wheel asplunds.]
And after awhile I was able to forget that my safety depended entirely on a single pubic hair:
It’s not unusual for competing brands to make their products incompatible. For example, if you own an iPhone and you send a text to someone with an Android device, the message will arrive seven days later and in Malaysian, and if they attempt to reply both your phones will explode. Since the dawn of the Indexing Era, Shimano and Campagnolo have also been more or less incompatible; sure, you might get lucky and find your 10-speed Campagnolo shifted a Shimano wheel just fine, but you might also find it was just constantly off by just enough to drive you crazy. (Though as I understand it 11-speed Campagnolo and Shimano spacing is basically identical, and therefore interchangeable, which is ironic because they finally jammed so many cogs in there they didn’t have any space left to engineer any incompatibility into the system.)
Given this, I assumed I’d at least have to do a little fiddling with the derailleur after putting a Shimano-compatible freehub in a Campy hub, but I didn’t have to touch a thing:
In a world that has been rent asunder by war and strife for all eternity, it is deeply inspiring to see Dura-Ace and Record working together in perfect harmony:
The wheels felt nearly as sprightly as the stupid-light Ralphs, too, though the paper-thin tires I dug out of storage might have had a lot to do with that:
I typically don’t ride such dainty tires, but what the hell, it’s summer.
The only issue was some brake squeal from the ceramic rim:
But a simple pad swap should take care of that, and otherwise it’s now riding like the bike of my wildest and Fredliest early-aughts dreams:
Speaking of which, I’ve noticed recently that a growing number of road weenies seem to be expressing the opinion rim brake road bikes are superior, and I submit this video not because it’s especially interesting (it isn’t), but merely as evidence of the phenomenon:
I suppose I should find this trend vindicating, but as someone who never had any interest in road bikes with disc brakes in the first place I mostly find it annoying. Now you speak up? Where were you in 2018? The rim brake’s gone, no thanks to people like you.
Just wait until they figure out that mechanical shifting is better than electronic.
