Introducing Victoria....... (new wheels on Page 31)

[taz]

I really like this bike.
Especially with the HEDs it looks HOT.
Any chance for a pic with the HEDs shown on the first page?

[pritchet74]

Heds on Page 1 were sold to pay for the Di2. The wheels replacing those are the rear 3-spoke & a Hed Stinger 6 up front. And the climbing wheels.

[mdeth1313]

Nice to see the wheels are happy in their new home-- I did cringe when you said you used d/a pads on the cirro rims, although the folks at reynolds told me the regular pads should work ok on their "carbon scratch" braking surface, but swissstops worked the best for me!
enjoy! Nice bike-- I just can't get into the Di2 thingy.

[pritchet74]

I made sure that the D/A pads had a clean surface. I went a little crazy shaving the pads down - perhaps a bit too much but since I knew that the pads on the brakes were very short term I didn't see the harm.

I hope that the SwissStop yellows do the job - otherwise the Hookers will be delegated to TT use only & I'll have to get some EE brakes instead. The rear brake seems fine - I can lock it up easy enough, but I can give the front a handful of brake lever & it won't lock up.

I just bought a new white Zoncolan Carbon FX. It was a price that I couldn't pass up. I'll might put that on & then some white Fizik bar tape (it seems to be the brand of white tape that's the easiest to keep clean). I think that should bring back some of Victoria's sex appeal. Of course, if the Speedneedle ends up working out for my arse then I'll have to start shopping for one of those. I'll hold off on mounting the white Zoncolan until I have made a decision of the Speedneedle though.

[pritchet74]

Updated pictures showing the better routing of the rear cable:



And here are pics to show why I am getting rid of the front Stinger 6 & replacing it with a front H3. I shaved down my Kool Stop carbon pads to see what it would take to get some pads to work with these brakes & this wheel. I'd need to have ~1.5mm thickness at the bottom of the pad & ~3-4mm of pad at the top of the pad to work - well, that's too thin of a pad for my comfort level to be used in crits & road races. I do plan on getting a Stinger 9 at some point for TT use though.

This pic shows the brake closed so that the bottom of the pad is hitting the rim:


This pic is with the brake released to show the clearance between the rim & pad:


Of course, I could just get the EE brakes & everything would work just fine with the wheel, but I am married to these brakes - especially since I found out that the pair of brakes that I have have different internals. Previously the power of the front brake was lacking, but I could lock up the rear brake with ease. So I switched the brakes around (quite easy to do) & not the front brake works perfectly. It sounds like the guys at Hooker were constantly changing things - whether it was with their frames, handlebars, stems, or the brakes apparently. A friend of mine know a LOT about the Hooker company & also the guys that ran the company - so I have heard a lot of good info on them. Common knowledge was that there were 2 versions of the Hooker brakes - the earlier version had shorter brake pad holders & the latter version had longer pad holders that accept the current Shimano brake pads. This is what I have. These are also the more sought after Hooker brakes. My friend has 3 complete Hooker bikes & also an extra single brake. All 7 of his brakes have the same internals - 5 are the old style & 2 are the new style, but they are all the same inside. To his knowledge there was only 1 design for the internals of the brake. Not true though - my one brake is different - the internals have been redesigned to create more power. The difference in braking power is very noticable. I am quite happy to have this 1 brake - otherwise I would have (and I almost did) relegated the Hookers to TT use only & gone with a set of EE brakes fro the road setup.

It's nice to have something different. I told this story to my wife & although her eyes glazed over for most of the story, at the end of it when I got to the part obout the brake being different & special, she said, "and I have you, dear." Ya, that's my loving wife!

[dunlinii]

Yes. You are special.

Nice work with the rear brake though. I like that.

[pritchet74]

Lots of changes, lots of changes. OK, not lots, but definitely changes. I got a new front H3 wheel, so now my wheels match & it looks really good. I am just waiting for the new decals to arrive for the rear H3 so that it'll match the new front wheel. Also, I mounted the battery under the NDS chainstay just behind the BB. Now I have my matching BTP cages back on the bike & it looks way, way, way better. I just hated the Di2 battery mounted below the bottle cage - to run 2 bottle cages I had to use the adapter on the seat tube & then I couldn't run a large bottle. I am so much happier with it now - both aesthetically & functionally. The wheel decals will be here next week & then I'll get new pics up. Well, once I get my front Hooker brake back & I get it back on Victoria I'll get pics up. Someone wanted to borrow the Hooker - so now I am just waiting for her to be returned.

[dunlinii]

Sounds good. Can't wait to see the pics. Hope you survive without your hookers

[Fuchs]

yes, sounds really great! hope to see some pictures soon. i really like your bike and love the HED. think it will look great!

[coloclimber]

Did you drill into the CS or just use zipties to mount the battery?

[pritchet74]

Zip tie at the zip tie location & then just electrical tape behind hte battery. I used rubber shims between the chainstay & the battery mount. I chopped off the metal battery mount about 1cm behind the battery.

[BMANX]

Pictures my friend or it never happened.

[RTW]

It's nice to have something different. I told this story to my wife & although her eyes glazed over for most of the story, at the end of it when I got to the part obout the brake being different & special, she said, "and I have you, dear." Ya, that's my loving wife!

This is the way that Lucy deals with me too!

I am in Germany in my tiny apartment here (I think a real estate agent would call it a 'studio', I call it a 'room') and there is lots of snow outside. I recently read 'Boy Racer' which is Mark Cavendish's book, and it has re-awakened a lot of my techy love of bikes. Not only that, but I also really want to follow the Pro Tour again this year. I got completely switched off to it follow scandal after scandal, and although I accept that things are probably better, I know the fight isn't over. It is still beautiful though, and Cav manages to capture some of the suffering that we all experience when riding, and it was good to read of his passion. You can tell he is still in love with the sport, which is refreshing, and great.

This rekindled passion has seen me reading up on who is going where for the coming year, and riding for whom. It has also seen me reading the forums (and posting) and wanting to consume as much to do with cycling as possible. I am now working my way through the FWB site, and as such thought that I better see what my old made Pritch was up to. Pritch and I last chatted at Interbike, and he was talking about Di2.... I found that it was high time I read up and here I am, looking at Victoria. Pritch's child like obsession for the toys is something I love.

Dude, I have questions for you...

1. Why Victoria? Anything to do with Pendleton?
2. Where, what and why - the Hookers? Out of production, I am guessing, but what is the story with them?

[pritchet74]

Everything to do with Pendleton me friend!

The Hookers are the "end all, be all" aero brake. They stopped making them over 10 years ago & they are very rare. I searched for a couple of years before I found these ones for sale. The front brake alone is worth 50 grams of drag savings over a regular Dura-Ace or Record brake. The rear is good for another 20 grams of drag. That 70 grams of drag is a "real world" savings of 7 watts. Most people have relegated the Hooker brakes to TT use only because of the weak stopping power though - and if you see my seperate thread just concerning the Hooker brakes you will hear my complaints there. BUT, it turns out that there were 3 different versions of the Hooker brakes made. The first had a really short brake pad holder section & used a brake pad that you can't get anymore, but some sort of pad can be modified to fit in it. The 2nd version was exactly the same, but the pad holder area was lengthened & also modified so that it takes a modern Shimano style brake pad. I would guess that 95% of the Hooker brakes available are of these 2 styles, with the later being the most desirable for obvious reasons. There was a 3rd style made though & of the ~30 Hooker brakes that I have either seen or know of other people that have seen, only 2 are of this 3rd style. I have one of them. From the outside it's exactly like the 2nd style, but once you remove the back plate from the brake you can see that the internals are VERY different. When I first got my brakes this newer style brake was setup as the rear brake. I could lock up the rear with just one finger, but was always lacking in braking on the front brake. Once I swapped them around the braking was perfect. I can honestly say that the braking power of the 3rd generation brake is better than the ZG's, KCNC, & the AX Lightness brakes & is very close to Campy brakes. I say that because I removed the front Hooker & put on a Campy Skeleton brake - there really isn't that much of a difference between the 2.

So that's the story with them.

Nice to have you back on the forum - try to stick around, eh? I'm going to try to get the Cav book now on Amazon.

[Fibre-Lyte]

Everything to do with Pendleton me friend!

Just in case you're interested, the girl has gone and got herself engaged! Will she still be as attractive as a Mrs as she currently is as a Miss?