Put
Le Crüst on a diet:
In preparation for:
Even after bending the "tombstone" more upright [wow that's hard tubing], the rack had to move forward to accommodate the decaleur. The original fenders (559x60mm, look for them for sale soon) were too short in the front to keep the bag dry, so they had to be replaced...
The Tanaka fenders (which are one of two options: them or $$$ Honjo $$$) were a supremely huge PITA, since they were delivered 1) with holes punched in them [which they were not supposed to have, according to the copy...], and 2) the rolled edge was rolled too much to squeeze the wire in for the taillight. Also, I bought what I
thought was a bargain: Tanaka struts that supposedly fit Nitto racks [they do!]...except rather than selling pairs like everyone else, they're sold singly. Three strikes, and all that. My stay woes were not done, though, as the bent struts from Nitto had their length measured
before they were bent--Too short! JFC, man! Luckily, the [old] front struts were long enough that I could bend them myself. The fenders were more dicey, and wound up with more slotting than I normally would have liked to get everything set in place. I wound up having to use a hooked-pick to lever out the rolled edge, install the wiring, then crimp it back in place with a pair of smooth-jaw pliers.
While I was going along replacing all the hardware, I took the time to replace all of the original steel hardware with titanium/aluminum parts, as well as chop the crap out of the overly-long seatpost. The seatpost will eventually get replaced with a lovely (and much lighter) Nitto, but this will suffice for now. The titanium screws, for the sake of ease of ordering, I bought longer than necessary for most of the parts. Ti makes lovely white sparks while cutting, and is otherwise a b****-and-a-half to shorten. Also almost set my belt sander that I never clean the crap off of on fire (yay!).