OK, bike build parts 2 and 3...
Wheels, tubes, tyres and freewheel become this:
Ta-da, wheels. The wheels are heavy ass Chinese junk. The hubs are Novatec, so that's OK, but the rims are stupid deep hipster rubbish. Still, I wanted cheap wheels to start with and I got them, so I'll make do. I had to hunt round for some tubes with long valves, and fortunately I had two knocking about with 60mm valves on, but it does mean I'll have to pick up some extras so I've got spares to carry with me. Before finding out about the short valve debacle, I managed to pop a tube while I was levering the tyre on, which was dumb. Even after all that, I found I'd not seated one right and found a huge bulge when I inflated the tube... Anyway. The tyres are 28mm Vittoria Rubinos with a wired bead, because why not when they're already that size. They cost like £8 each, bargain. The freewheel is a Sturmey Archer one. Sturmey Archer sold their IP and name to Sunrace a while back, so it's made in Taiwan or wherever. You can pay silly money for freewheels if you get something made by White, or you can get something super cheap from Dicta. This cost £12, which is not as cheap as these things get, so hopefully it'll hold up. I can always replace it with better in the future.
OK, next...
The chain cost a princely £4 from Planet X. It's got a funny little joining link which did the job, so on it went:
Like so. I set the length based on wanting to get the track nuts roughly in the middle of the track ends, which should give me the room I need to get the chain off in the event of a puncture.
The pedals are a set of M520s I took off my best bike, as I'm in the process of shifting to proper SPD-SL pedals for that. These have got about 2000 miles on them, so they should last a fair old while yet.
OK, change of scenery, into the kitchen for today's work. I didn't have a star nut tool, so I opted for banging it in with a screwdriver down the middle. It worked OK, as you can see:
With that done I could get the headset tightened up like this:
The spacer stack is a bit random, but it gives me room to play with the fit if needs be.
Brake 1 set up. These are very tight, as you can see from how the black thingamabob is all squidged up. I think it must be to do with the cable pull from the levers. They'll do the job, but I'm not sure what I'll do if it comes time to remove one of the wheels to fix a puncture, as I can't get the little tube out of the yoke.
Brake 2 for good measure. This was a bit of a pig, as the rear cable had a slight bend in the middle, so it was hard to get it pulled taut at the back. It works, but the lever pretty much bottoms out on the bar if I really pull on it. Fortunately it's the rear brake, so less critical for stopping! I guess it's to do with the longer cable run.
Brown bar tape. It's not my neatest taping job, but it'll do. I'll probably find the levers are in the wrong position now and have to re-do it, but it's cheap tape, so I'll live.
Black cages and a pump bracket. I'm glad I greased the bolt threads as one of the allen key slots got reamed out by the key, which is no good, so if I ever have to change it I'll need all the help I can get.
All important Garmin mount.
And there's the finished article. I've put a saddle bag on for good measure, but there's not much point given it's got no usable spare tyres in
My daughter and wife both told me I shouldn't have put a brown saddle on it, but what do they know, I like it. I'll post a decent picture of it outside at the weekend, and it can go in the bike gallery!
It'll probably get its first ride at the weekend, once I've got my bike shed sorted outside, as I've nowhere to keep it once it gets dirty.
So... Here's the specs:
On One Pompino steel frame and fork
Miche bottom bracket and chainset
Sturmey Archer freewheel
KMC single speed chain
Charge spoon saddle on cheap Ribble seatpost
FSA Orbit MX headset
Deda stem, bars and tape
Shimano R400 levers
Tektro mini v brakes
Cheap heavy Chinese wheels
In terms of the damage, all told the parts cost me £450. That includes taking into account selling a bunch of duplicate parts that I got with the frame bundle. Buying the bike complete from Planet X costs £500, though that is with better wheels and some other worse parts. I spent £50 on tools I didn't already have - a bottom bracket tool, a headset press, a freewheel tool and a steerer cutting guide. Notable missing tools were a crown race setter and a star nut setter, but I bodged the first by cutting the race and managed the second as shown above. So £450 for parts and £50 for tools puts me pretty much at the same price as buying the complete bike, which isn't bad. The chief weak point is the wheels, but I'll upgrade them next year.
For what it's worth I also spent about £40 on accessories (mudguards, cages, etc) but I'd have needed those whether I was buying it new or building it myself.
In terms of time, it's probably taken about 6 hours to build from start to finish, which isn't bad. It was certainly a good experience. It's interesting to see how it all fits together, and it's quite eye opening in places to see how some of it works, like how the whole headset hinges on the star nut which is held in by little more than friction.
If I've got any doubts they're around the v-brakes, as I'm not familiar with them, so I'm hoping they perform OK when I take it out for a test at the weekend. That and how I'll get the wheels off in the event of a puncture, but hopefully that won't be something I'll face too soon. I'll have to do some trial runs at home.
So, I'll report back on how it rides at the weekend...
