Velocipedestrian wrote:Been out? Ride report?

First spin today, all good. Feels pretty much normal already.
New pedals were good too, hadn't noticed how flogged the old ones were.

Dog detects shock service? It's amazing what small changes do to an older stead. Wide bars, grippy tires, dropper...

The incremental improvements over time keep life interesting.
New forks, new wheels, single ring and clutch derailleur, upgraded lowers, dropper, new cockpit. Think the angleset is about the only thing left to change

Actually that's not true - the brakes, cranks and seat are still original (along with frame/shock of course).

I'm guessing that 15mm axle swap worked out? Given the fork carpet doesn't match the curtains.

Yep, all switched over nicely.
I like to think of it as a factory one off look

Nice.
On the incremental upgrades (for no money) front, I recommend butchering a front shifter to use as a dropper lever.
Much better ergonomics, and a fun project.

Yes! Cleaned out the shed today and found my old left hand shifter lying on the bench.
Pretty sure you've posted a link to a how to for this previously?
My only question is, how did you clamp the cable end?

My Giant remote clamps the cable at the lever - ideally for a shifter you'd want to run the cable the normal way around as I can't think of a nice way to clamp the cable end inside the shifter? Would need a tiny bolt with a hole through it or some such?

Yup, I used a fishing trace crimp - get ye to the LFS.
Pulled it all pretty snug, then used the barrel adjuster on the shifter + the one on the flexible lead pipe off the dropper to make sure I had enough thread to take up the slack.
Works mint.

Have a Google for your particular shifter, I found 3-4 threads on various fora with pics etc.
Basically just disassemble, grind off ratchet teeth, reassemble with bodged cable.

Mine is a sram unit where you take the cap off to replace the cable, might be easier than a Shimano with the Philips port.

Only downside so far is you need to cut the cable to remove the post, but a fresh cable + crimp seems worth it.

Sweet! Too easy. I even have a hunting and fishing voucher that needs using...

Might be a bit bitchy with the Shimano Philips port, was thinking a small ferrule to space it out through the hole before crimping could be the go, but then realised that wouldn't work as the cable head disappears behind the hole when you push the lever (this possibly makes no sense, I'm thinking out loud).

Like you say, running the giant flexi barrel adjuster + the shifter adjuster should give enough adjustment. Could even add a roadie shifter inline barrel adjuster if need be.

Fair to say I dislike the standard lever, I shall experiment.

Giv'er.
If the Shimano shifter turns out to be sour, your LBS probably has a pile of front sram ones after all the 1x conversions.

I think the crimp I'm using would just fit into a Shimano hole, but might be a mission. Hunt'n'fish'n may have smaller ones.
Brass, not aluminium, and crimp hard, you don't want it slipping.

XT front shifter conversion successfully completed - holy smoke what a MASSIVE improvement. Better ergonomics, more leverage, vastly better cable routing, looks better, post doesn't feel like it's going to stick.

Ended up not needing to hacksaw or file anything, popped the pawl return spring off and totally removed the second lever (covered the hole with electrical tape).

Getting the crimp close enough to the hole was getting tricky so I finished up with the crimp at the post end - was going to need to cut the cable to separate the two anyway so figured it didn't make much odds which end it was at, and it's super easy to pull tight and crimp at that end. Also fashioned some weatherproofing out of an old tube for the head of the post and droppper mechanism - it's a real shit trap in there on the Giant posts - no wonder it started feeling sticky on every wet ride...

Wondering why I didn't do this months ago.

Ha, the crimp at post end is one of those nice obvious ideas. Wish I'd thought of it.

Is your weatherproofing related to the external cable? Or would it still help for stealth style?
Pix?

Weatherproofing is specific to external cable option, basically a piece of tube cut into a flat sheet with three holes in it. It gets sandwiched between the lower and upper plates of the seat clamp, clamp bolts through two of the holes (not actually pinched or messing with bolt tension - it's cut narrow enough not to foul on the actual clamp), the sheet is then stretched out the rear of the assembly and down around the bottom of the rear bolt. Basically closing off the open path for mud from your back wheel to make its way into the mechanism in the head of the post. Very simple, but difficult to explain.

I didn't take any pics while I was putting it together, and it's pretty hard to see once it's in place. If my explanation doesn't make sense I will whip the seat off and take a few pics.

A few pics - flat piece of tube is underneath the top clamp plate, bolts going through holes in the tube to told it in place. Tube covering the post actuator lever mechanism. Tube then stretched out the back and down around the bottom of the rear bolt.
Realised now the tube could sit on top of the top plate and be stretched down and over both the front and rear bolts, possibly simpler and keeping more crap out.

Nice.
When I get around to it I'll pull out the cart from mine to see if any crap is getting in from the top.