On 18 Apr 2014, at 23:39, "Stan Halpin" <[email protected]> wrote: > > >> On Apr 18, 2014, at 6:04 PM, Bob W-PDML <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> So, after last weekend's fun in the woods I've bought a purpose-built >> cyclocross frameset, which I will build up to use as an off-road-only bike >> to avoid damaging my custom Roberts audax. >> >> This will be the first time I've built a bike from the frame & forks up. > > Been there, done that, have the scars to show for it. And I think it makes > for a great project that every cyclist should take on at least once. > My primary bit of advice is to forego the process of building the wheels. At > least get a mechanic to thread the spokes and do a first approximation on > truing the wheel. The fine tuning is doable and an important skill to > develop; the threading and initial truing is an arcane art that requires sale > of your soul in order to achieve any degree of success.
Indeed. I can true wheels, but building them is way beyond my ambition. I'll get something decent ready-made. On the Marin I had for 17 years before the Roberts I did take off and replace just about everything at least once over the years, and I did an intermediate maintenance class a few years ago, but not enough to really make it all sink in. I'm a bit crap at this sort of thing, so I reckon a complete build should kill or cure me of that, and as I've ordered a bike shed for the back yard I'll have enough room to store 2-3 bikes, and all the tools and paraphernalia which I can't sensibly keep in the house. I think the real difficulties for me will be knowing exactly which components go with which others and work well together, and not getting carried away and putting humungously expensive bits on what is meant to be a messing-about-with bike, yet still doing something nice. There seem to be so many confusing standards. For example, it's an Italian frameset from the late 80s/early 90s which takes an Italian-threaded bottom bracket, which I think then entails some particular types of crank. These bikes were originally built with all Campy, and the temptation is to try and put authentic stuff on, but that would be ridiculous - I'm not doing it so I can swan about in Hoxton with the hipsters... B >> >> Here's a vid of the sort of fun you can have with a second bike: >> >> http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H9_Fs1QtsOY >> >> The commentary is magnificent, if you can understand the accent. >> -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
