OTR

My OTR bike has 9,162 miles on its current components, and while the chain is a bit loose and I can’t hit all gear combinations, it’s still quite rideable for my typical day-to-day activities. Normally I’d keep riding until it’s obvious a part needs to be replaced, but I don’t want to worry about mechanical stuff on the OTR ride. So today I replaced the entire drivetrain – from the shifters all the way back to the rear cassette – with Shimano XTR components. It was an expensive retrofit, but it shaved another pound and a half off the weight of the bike. I’ll definitely appreciate that on the long uphill grinds through the Swiss Alps! And boy, it really is a sweet shifter now – I can hit everything from the lowest low gear to the highest high gear.

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My bike now sports an all-XTR drivetrain. Click to see a larger version.

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Up front, there's a new XTR Hollowtech II crank and XTR front derailleur.

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At the back end is a new XTR rear derailleur and XTR cassette. And it's all operated with new XTR shifters.

This entry was posted on May 1, 2010 at 3:35 pm and is filed under Bike & Gear, Preparations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.