Saturday, April 12, 2014

Expedition Upgrades

It's time that I treat my Expedition with the same respect I've given to my 700. The Expedition has served me well for five years but the 700 has received all the upgrades. 

On the Expedtion I recently went from a 9 speed cassette and chain to a 10 speed cassette and chain to get the lower gear a little lower. I thought that I could get by with the existing 9 speed Shimano Dura Ace 7700 bar end shift levers since I have always had them set on friction rather then the 9 speed index setting (to call the Dura Ace 7700 an "indexed" shift lever is a joke, their indexing is terrible). With the extra cog on the cassette (giving me ten gears on the back end) the friction shifting has made shifting pretty sloppy. The indexed shifting on my 700 is solid with it's SRAM TT 500 shift levers. I decided that the Expedition was deserving of the same quality shift levers.  Now the Expedition has the SRAM TT 500s.




Along with the shift levers I upgraded to a 10 speed SRAM X9 Type 2 rear derailleur.

While in upgrade mode I  upgraded the brake levers on the Expedition from Avid FR-5 levers to the Avid Speed Dial 7 levers (the same as on my 700). I like the ability to adjust the action of the brake lever.

With a little help from my REI dividends both my Catrike 700 and Catrike Expedition share some of the same quality components making for a smooth riding transition between Cats.