i just got my bike back from the powder coaters, at it was about half the price i was expecting. the powder coating was not quite as good as i wanted, but it will do.

the paint have a few little problems. the first one is that it is not shiny. i guess i didn’t ask for shiny, so i can’t really complain. they also left a few little grains of sand or something under the coat, so now there is a little bump. overall it’s not bad, just i can’t enter any custom chopper competitions :(

i also got my breaks and lever in the mail today…. i’m really happy with them so far.

they are “TEKTRO Orix” cantilever breaks weighing in at 162 grams x 2 = 324 grams.

and here are the levers Cane Creek SCR-5 (267 grams). they have internal cabling and they have a very long pull. these are way nicer than i thought they would be. i think i’m going to get a pair for my bianchi. btw the bars weigh 250 grams!

tomorrow is the big day when i get my headset, and bottom bracket. it shouldn’t be a big deal, but i totally guessed on the bb. i pulled a size out of my butt. if it doesn’t fit i think i can use it on another bike. i am worried about the headset because the powder coating on the fork went a little bit high. the crown may not fit any more.

total weight so far is 324 + 267 + 250 = 841 grams = 1.854 pounds

not counting frame and paint :)

i got my handlebars yesterday…. somehow i’m a little worried that they will be super uncomfortable. they mostly got good reviews, but i’m always different.

at first i thought it will be cool to have little drop bars, but now i do think so. i’ll still put them one, because i can’t afford to get other ones.

more stuff will come in on monday.

my bike project is almost a week old and i still haven’t taken it in to have it powder coated. i’ve had three places in mind, and two of them i had quotes from…and the third one…. well. i took it to the third one, which happened to be pretty close to my work. the receptionist was friendly enough, but the guy who was going to do the painting was kind of odd. he looked about 65 years old, but in reality he was probably about 50. he looked like he had been smoking since kindergarten. his skin was all wrinkled and he was shaking like a cold wet dog. he gave me some ridiculous price, i pretended to be interested, but just asked some question about powder coating then somehow got the heck out of there.

i ended up taking my bike to the berthoud place, they seemed a bit hillbilly, but they were cheap enough. i was also told by a coworker that it is pretty difficult to do a bad job of powder coating.

also, i got my headset and crown removed for free at the local bike shop. now i feel obligated to by something from them…. shouldn’t be difficult.

well, things were going pretty smoothly. i guess that was mostly due to the fact that it was the weekend and my orders were not processed yet.

i drove around at lunch to find a place to do my powdercoating. it turns out that the color that i want is going to be very expensive. i now have to adjust my requirements a bit to fit my budget. it will still be a pretty cool color, but not as flashy as i wanted.

also, i got a dreded e-mail from the bike parts place: my hub is not in stock and they wont have it until 2 weeks from now.

oh well….

after finding a place that will strip an powdercoat my frame, i wasted no time dismantling my old diamond back.  i put my bike up on the stand and got out my bike tools and started.  i was really glad i had the right tool for everything… except for the headset removal.  i think i’ll see if my local shop can pound it out for me.  it only took me about 15 minutes to completly remove everything.  i was actually 30 seconds away from putting in my car and driving off to the powdercoating shop.  i decided not to, because i wanted to think about the color some more. i also wanted to research some parts online, just to get a ball park figure of the cost.

here are some pictures before:

remember biopace?

these drops are going to be a pain in the neck for single speed.  i suppose i could use eccentric hubs. eccentric hubs are hubs that have the axle offset so you can twist the hub to tighten the chain.  i still haven’t got a plan for this bike so i won’t get too far ahead of myself.

this next picture is of the old quell headset. i’d love to replace that, but i don’t want to buy a fork.

the forks and handle bars and cranks are just hanging on the fram so i could get these pictures.  when i remember to take the pictures i had already dismantled everything.

later

the summer of 92.