Shiny Happy People

She's finished! Fertig! Komplett!

Actually, this slick lil' whip been finished for the past few weeks, I've just been a bit of a slacker as of late. This photo was taken pre-adjustments; the rear derailleur makes a lot more sense now and the fit is a little different. The build was pretty successful; only a few setbacks happened while installing the shifters and derailleurs, and the brakes were a piece of cake!

Which brings me to some important lessons learned and to keep in mind for future tinkering:

- use a level when installing the shifters, the left shifter/brake handle is slightly higher than the right
- removing a link from the chain may or may not have been a good idea, continue researching that before the Spring
- the front derailleur took a surprisingly long time to get right, mostly because the bracket was slightly bent, when you're fiddling with the limit screws for more than 30 minutes, check to see if the bracket is bent
- try your absolute hardest not to fray the ends of the cables! shit is so annoying to replace and cabling isn't cheap!
- take everything in stride - take your time adjusting the indexing and finding the ideal tension for the rear derailleur cable

After a couple of rides on the trainer and one ride in the cold Chicago Winter (which I'll ramble about in my next post!), I can already tell that there are things I'll have to keep re-adjusting until they're just right/I become more skillful.

As I mentioned above, adjusting the derailleur indexing and shifting can take some time. I thought about crying uncle and bringing it to my favorite bike shop in Chicago and have the pros quickly solve all of my shifting woes, but instead I pulled up Sheldon Brown's site as well as multiple youtube videos for me to review and attacked it on my own. With an inspirational tune in my head I slowly went about turning adjusting barrels, tightening and loosening tiny screws, using lots of colorful language and upshifting/downshifting repeatedly until it was in a reasonably good state of tune. 

This proved to be an excellent decision, because by the time I was taking the bike off the stand and giving it a big smiley gaze, my mechanical inclination had increased GREATLY. I became a more successful hobbyist, I gained some very valuable experience, I became a more enlightened cyclist... and I've run out of positive titles to give myself!

Stay tuned for my next post, when I recollect this weekend's rides in the real Hell of the North... Dangerous bike paths, dangerous/brainless shoppers on State Street, Milwaukee Ave, fearless suburban tractors and loss of feeling in fingers, toes and the gentleman's region.

My New Love

My friends, this is my latest project.

For the past year I really came to love my previous Cannondale Crit. I was amazed that a bike from the late 80s I had acquired for cheap was as light and fast as it was, and enabled me keep up and do decently in a criterium race. I acquired some parts for it that I never got around to installing (6500 Ultegra group, carbon fork), threw a lightweight Neuvation wheelset on it, kept it tuned up, and had a blast riding it with all it's downtube-shifting, stiff-riding, Biopace glory. 

Fast forward to when it was stolen; I was completely heartbroken. I had plans to re-paint it, install that carbon fork and group, and ride the hell out of it to progress in road cycling. 

After a lot of research and financial review, I decided that I wanted to build another old C'Dale Crit. I came across this 1990 Cannondale SR400 Criterium frameset on Ebay, bid the opening bid, and won it! As stated in the previous post, when I received it I was in awe over how good of shape it was in. I started throwing on the parts I had lying around as soon as I could, and became addicted. Lots of bidding, lots of research, lots of financial balancing ensued (I'm relieved I'm able to pay for food, rent and utilities after buying up parts!), and now all I'm waiting on are a few small but crucial parts. 

So what is the purpose of all of this? Why am I so stoked on it? Why an old C'Dale? 

I've developed quite a passion for road riding. I cannot wait to do a ride or two on it before the winter gets too intense (I'm going to try to keep it away from the salt), do thousands of miles on a trainer, really churn out the miles as soon as possible in the late Winter/early Spring and start crit racing as soon as possible! I enjoyed the 2 races I did last season so much that I really want to race a lot more next season! 

I had so much luck last year with an old Cannondale for so cheap, why not try another one? A newer CAAD9, Allez, 1.5, etc would be a swell bike too, but I really got a soft spot for older bikes and how much they can offer for the price. I just would rather throw down for a well/hand/USA-made old C'dale, especially in my financial situation. Maybe when I have a well-paying career I'll consider a modern replacement, but until then I'm quite happy with what I've got. It also doesn't hurt to get compliments from the various bike shops I give my business to. 

Road riding, while it has cost a pretty penny, has gotten me into great shape, taught me a lot of constructive and useful skills, taught me a lot about myself, has been very rewarding, and has just been a total blast! This bike will ensure that all of this keeps happening. 

An Introduction of Sorts

Greetings fellow internet surfers!

I've been throwing around the idea of starting a blog that is an in-depth look at my various hobbies for quite sometime now. I've thought about doing one on my photography, I've strongly considered starting an automotive blog a la the style Top Gear, Jalopnik and other excellent resources for automotive journalism, and more recently I've wanted to start one about my love of cycling.

I wasn't sure what kind of direction to take with a cycling blog; should I express my views and opinions on the industry, should I talk about my newbie status and development in criterium racing, should I write about my adventures in leisure, training and long-distance rides, etc.

What about building bikes?

As it so happens, recently I've started another chapter in my hobby of cycling: bike building. This came about a little over a month ago when my dear old 1988 Cannondale Criterium was stolen (RIP) and I was in a pinch to quickly throw a fixed gear project together I had been slowly gathering parts for. Out of that fiasco came a cheaply acquired 1988 Schwinn Le Tour in pristine shape that I would ride temporarily, as well as dedicated parts bike that enabled me to finish my fixed gear project.

Why was I in a pinch to get a new bike after my dear old Cannondale was taken away from me? I deliver sandwiches for Potbelly Sandwich Shop in downtown Chicago. Why did I absolutely NEED a swell old Schwinn AS WELL AS a parts bike to build a more trendy fixed gear? I got them both for such an amazing deal, and if there's one thing my suburban middle-class background has taught me, it's that trendy things ought to be bought when one has the financial means.

Saving you folks a lot of BS to read through, I purchased an Eighth Inch Scrambler V3 framest and threw all of my parts on that and created a pretty slick whip that has proven to be a great work bike. I plan to flip the Schwinn (into the arms of a deserving cyclist) for a small profit.

I was quite proud of building up a bike from scratch; it taught me some valuable skills that have made me a lot more comfortable in future bike building and maintenance, as well as given me a little sense of pride. I owe a lot of credit to my roommate and pal Brent as well, who's infinite knowledge of bike building and helpfulness is much appreciated.

To finally get to the point and allow you more time to allot for reading Facebook, Twitter and Efukt, I have decided that this blog will be about my general interest in cycling, encompassing all of the aspects I've come to really love. I think I'll also throw in other aspects of my life that I think might be interesting and/or cause a chuckle or two (but you can be the judge of that, my humor can get awfully cheesy).

Cheers,
  PJN