Finishing it all up

Today I went into the shop to put on more parts on the bike. I didn't know much about putting on the STI levers. cables, brakes etc and I was very lucky to have Gabriel and Gareth to help me out. I was being the little helper as I wouldn't have been able to do it all by myself now.
We had to cut the forks by a couple of centimeters and that took a couple of tries to get it right as me and Gabriel couldn't find the mark that was made on the metal. In the end we managed to get it right and the handlebars went in without too much trouble. Ok, maybe with a little bit of help from the hammer.

This was Gareth and Gabriel messing about while getting the parts on the bike.

Next went on the gear/brake levers on the handlebars along with the cables which needed some gentle cohersing especially the cables for the front mech. Gabriel found a way to make it work and we were in business.

After that, the rear mech, rear hanger and crankset went in. I took off the chain protector off the outer chainring as it looked a bit silly. Those went up without any trouble onto the frame.

Sprocket, front and back wheels went on along with the chain and after some tweaking by Gabriel, the gear changes were as smooth as butter. The handle bartape went up easily and it looked the part. Also, the seat looked even better today.

And this is the final result with the finished bicycle. It looks pretty cool I think and tomorrow I will go have a cycle on it to test it all out and see how it handles and what needs to be tweaked as I know there will be some tiny adjustments that will be required.

But for tonight, it will hang by the ceiling in the shop till I get to see her tomorrow and go for a test ride.

Build it up

Today I started to put the parts on the bicycle after getting the frame unwrapped from the masking tape and paper. The frame and fork had been left the to cure over the last four days and the end result was very decent.

I was really happy how it all turned out and the orange and black bit on the horizontal tube looked pretty cool.
After getting the box of parts, Gabriele, Gareth and Anne helped me put on the headset onto the fork and frame. I then put on the seat, seat post, front brake calipers and rear brake calipers onto the frame. Getting the seat and seatpost was the most difficult task for me as the metal frame of the seat made it really tight to access. But I managed it in the end and I must say that seat looks gorgeous and looks more expensive that it really was. All the new parts that I bought were from Ribble Cycles (www.ribblecycles.co.uk), which had a 20% off offer a while ago and were very prompt in their delivery and charges. It took seven days to get to me but I didn't mind as their delivery charges were very reasonable and with the 20% off offer, suited my shoe string budget for this project.

This is the progress so far and tomorrow once we get a hacksaw, we are going to cut the stem to size after measuring it properly as this is a precision job. After that, I will keep on putting the rest of the parts until I get to the wheels, which have been ordered, but have not arrived yet. I reckon it will be a very exciting day tomorrow as I get to open the plastic bags containing the parts and getting them onto the bike. Roll on tomorrow :)