so who wants an update on my bike build?no?
whatever; i got this frame a while ago now and have been slowly sourcing parts to complete it. the frame itself is awesome. i got it mainly because it had horizontal drop-outs (necessary for a single speed) and it was pretty nearby on ebay. when i got it home i found the seat stays were really cool. and after a bit of research it turns out it was built in 1970 in worksop. so it's classic and british. hurrah!
though i liked the colour, i've since painted it. i was going to go for a really pastel blue but i misjudged the rattle-can of car paint and was a bit over entranced by the name "stratos blue" .. so it's ended up like this after the first coat:
a sort of metallic air-force-grey-blue sort of thing. which i've fallen in love with a bit. especially when it's pieced together with the other bits and pieces.
speaking of the other bits and pieces, they're pretty much all brand new, but not necessarily the best brands or the lightest weights. i should mention that i've yet to actually ride a fixie so there's a great chance that i might not even like it. if i do, i'll get lighter parts over time. if i don't, i'll sell it. judging by the prices of some second-hand bikes i saw in brick lane bikes a couple of days ago i should get a fair whack for mine (considering there were a few in there that weren't any where near as nice as mine going for more than £350).
the most expensive parts were the wheels. but i thought it was worth spending a bit of money on the bit that is going to stop my face hitting tarmac at 25mph.
the hardest bit has been the whole bottom bracket business. if you look at the top picture you will see the original 1970 bottom bracket fused to the frame with 40 years of rust and dirt and ming. and that wasn't coming out in a hurry. unfortunately - as i was to discover - it was about 2 inches too long and the chain-line would end up as straight as tom cruise's grip on reality.
oh well, it only took me about 5 hours of grunting and sweating and moaning about life to remove it.
bastard.
still, it's all gonna be worth it. i'm pretty close to finishing bar a couple of details that i'll tell you about later. for now, have a look at the work so far.
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