macrophotofly
Maximum Pace
- Aug 27, 2012
- 581
- 234
Well the parts have all turned up (okay apart from the wheels which are stuck in customs for some reason....and one GP4000s tyre*) so I spent an hour or three on Sunday afternoon fitting the Di cables** inside the frame.
I bought the SM-JC41 Internal wire routing set which comprised of a tiny junction box (think match box but 50% smaller in all dimensions), Battery holder with long bracket (you can't get the set with a short bracket so I had planned cutting the long bracket after the two closest holes however on closer inspection it would mean slightly reaming out the first of these to sink the screw beneath the surface or it would interfere with the battery)...
....and four wires (1200mm, 750mm,650mm and 300mm). The internal wires have plastic cable-tie-like attachments every 10cm to stop the wires rattling around inside the frame. The wires have to be inserted the right way into the frame to make the most of these.
I quickly established the 1200mm wire was overkill for my medium sized bike and that the 300mm wire would work for either the battery or the FD given both items were in close proximity to the BB where the junction box is housed. I decided to run round to Y's in Shinjuku to get another 300mm wire and while I was there inquired about the short battery holder. Turns out they sell the short bracket as a spare (simple unscrew long bracket from battery holder and screw in the short bracket - far better solution than my cutting/reaming plan).
The basic wiring approach is this -
With a GXP BB the wires can be left as above - they would have been shielded from the rotating crankshaft. With a BB30 there is no shield so the wires have to be routed between the metal BB and the carbon frame. You can just see that in the picture below.
Note, that I decided to place my junction box in the bottom of the seat tube (above BB) to give the battery wire a little more length. This was because of a problem caused by the location of the battery holder mounts on the frame.
Boardman mount them on the top of the left stay, whereas other manufacturers, if mounting on the left stay mount it underneath. Boardman may have thought they were being clever by doing this (less mud/water thrown up), but the battery holder has a gate that must be opened to take the battery out. If you fit the battery holder with the wire end closest to the frame wire hole then the gate opens... ..into the wheel. Open to ideas here, if anyone has them, but I ended up mounting it with the wire to the rear and a longer wire run to the frame, to avoid that problem
Here's that gate opening from above (see how it would have interfered with the wheel if it had been the other way round) -
Final items were the grommets that make the fit look far more professional -
Next up is fitting the BB30......
**(thanks to Owen for pointing out I needed to fit them before the BB30)
NOOB Mistakes so far
1. *Ordered only one tyre - forgot to change the quantity from one to two before hitting the order button
2. Rather than measuring the frame seat tube diameter, I read it off the plastic transit bung (its obvious to me, now, that it is flexible enough to fit all seat post diameters, but wasn't at the time). An apology to Tim later, and at the weekend I picked up the right size seat post from GSA
3. Di Wire set is too large - I now have a spare 1200mm wire if anyone needs one! Instead I could have ordered the wires, junction box and short battery holder each independantly. The best wire lengths for a similar Medium frame would have been 850mm, 700mm, 350mm, 350mm
I bought the SM-JC41 Internal wire routing set which comprised of a tiny junction box (think match box but 50% smaller in all dimensions), Battery holder with long bracket (you can't get the set with a short bracket so I had planned cutting the long bracket after the two closest holes however on closer inspection it would mean slightly reaming out the first of these to sink the screw beneath the surface or it would interfere with the battery)...
....and four wires (1200mm, 750mm,650mm and 300mm). The internal wires have plastic cable-tie-like attachments every 10cm to stop the wires rattling around inside the frame. The wires have to be inserted the right way into the frame to make the most of these.
I quickly established the 1200mm wire was overkill for my medium sized bike and that the 300mm wire would work for either the battery or the FD given both items were in close proximity to the BB where the junction box is housed. I decided to run round to Y's in Shinjuku to get another 300mm wire and while I was there inquired about the short battery holder. Turns out they sell the short bracket as a spare (simple unscrew long bracket from battery holder and screw in the short bracket - far better solution than my cutting/reaming plan).
The basic wiring approach is this -
With a GXP BB the wires can be left as above - they would have been shielded from the rotating crankshaft. With a BB30 there is no shield so the wires have to be routed between the metal BB and the carbon frame. You can just see that in the picture below.
Note, that I decided to place my junction box in the bottom of the seat tube (above BB) to give the battery wire a little more length. This was because of a problem caused by the location of the battery holder mounts on the frame.
Boardman mount them on the top of the left stay, whereas other manufacturers, if mounting on the left stay mount it underneath. Boardman may have thought they were being clever by doing this (less mud/water thrown up), but the battery holder has a gate that must be opened to take the battery out. If you fit the battery holder with the wire end closest to the frame wire hole then the gate opens... ..into the wheel. Open to ideas here, if anyone has them, but I ended up mounting it with the wire to the rear and a longer wire run to the frame, to avoid that problem
Here's that gate opening from above (see how it would have interfered with the wheel if it had been the other way round) -
Final items were the grommets that make the fit look far more professional -
Next up is fitting the BB30......
**(thanks to Owen for pointing out I needed to fit them before the BB30)
NOOB Mistakes so far
1. *Ordered only one tyre - forgot to change the quantity from one to two before hitting the order button
2. Rather than measuring the frame seat tube diameter, I read it off the plastic transit bung (its obvious to me, now, that it is flexible enough to fit all seat post diameters, but wasn't at the time). An apology to Tim later, and at the weekend I picked up the right size seat post from GSA
3. Di Wire set is too large - I now have a spare 1200mm wire if anyone needs one! Instead I could have ordered the wires, junction box and short battery holder each independantly. The best wire lengths for a similar Medium frame would have been 850mm, 700mm, 350mm, 350mm