The main reason I'm updating now is that I've finally finished purchasing all the parts that one needs to build a bike, and furthermore, I've even started building it. There are a few things that got in the way of forward progress prior to last night. One is that I don't actually own a decent set of tools, and there are more than a few specialized tools when working on bikes that make everything easier, if not outright possible where things were previously not. For instance, there is this high tech tool for installing the fork crown race:
Yes, those are cassettes whose sole purpose for existence is to be a spacer. Eventually we had another stem attached on there, with handlebars no less, to get the spacers about the top of the fork for hammering. Also, a perfectly docile peice of wood was reduced to shards in this process. 12/15/2001 - The day the wood gave its life for bicycles. Any professional mechanic who saw this would immediately assume that I was this animal:
Anyways, here is some bike porn. Check out my parts:
Also shown, sick tablecloths. I should take this opportunity to note that my friend Nate Mlot, who is a self-trained, entirely proficient, generally insane bike mechanic and grad student in Dr. Hu's lab helped me with many things, including but not limited to: having any idea what the fuck was going on; owning tools like the one above (also, some actual tools that are more exotic like bottom bracket tools and an improvised headset installer); and torquing things down when my pathetic excuses for shoulders exceeded their capacity to apply forces greater than 5 lbs. With his help, the bike slowly went from looking like a pile of parts, a few old wheels, and a designer device for hiding the tops of tables from food items to a bike.
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| Slowly shit is getting added on. Check out that sick saddle. You like that matching blue, don't you? |
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| Addition of fork, rear wheel, crankset, cassette, rear derailleur |
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| SAME SHIT, DIFFERENT VIEW |
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| Later, back at my place, it's starting to look like a bike! |
So really there are just a few things to do at the moment. One is I need to cut down the steer tube on the fork to the proper size and finish installing the headset. Then I need to a bunch of smaller shit, like tape the bars, add the shifters, route the cable, adjust the cable tensions, put the chain on, add pedals, bask in the glory of a new bike, etc. One minor thing came up, however. Apparently without all the cabling in place, the handlebars will swing around violently if left to their own devices. I had the bike propped up against a bike stand when this happened and the bike slid down the side of the stand and fucked up the paint on the top tube kinda near the Quest logo. It's minor and cosmetic, but I know its there so now it's all I look at. That being said, this thing is looking sick as hell. When I get around to it, I'll take some photos with my G9 so that the camera phone blur is removed and you can be as excited as I am. ETA for completion is Sunday (just gotta get that steer tube cut and the rest will be cake). Badass.
-Dt
