Woohoo Bike Kitchen!

Spent 3 hours at the Bike Kitchen last night working on the Surly. After building the IRO there, I got pretty good at using some tools.

Pressed in the headset fairly quickly, but then got stuck waiting to use the steerer cutting tool and files. I worked on putting the bottom bracket in until I was able to get the front-end tools. Finally got the giant stack of headset spacers in and the stem and bars on.



Popped cranks on shortly after the BB install. Octalink is weird!



Spent some time putting on the brakes.


I've only really cut and run cable on BMX bikes, so I pretty much just guesstimated about how and where to cut the lines. It seems to work ok. The only crappy part is the routing on the front brake. The bend from the bars seemed to make too tight a turn so I routed it over the top and behind the bars. It looks a little silly. I'll pick up some more cable ends and re-route it at some point.

Wanted to run and cut the shifter cables before I left for the evening so I popped on the front and rear derailleurs real quick.



Big hiccup occured when trying to put on the shift lever. They're way more complicated than I thought! So I ran out of time and brought the bike back to my office.

After work today I spent time reading the exploded diagrams and installation guide for the shifters. It looks like there might be a little tab broken off. I also realized I was missing pieces! Somebody opened my box before I got to it. So I emailed Universal Cycles to try and get an exchange. After messing around with it, I was able to get it to what seems like "working". If I get a postive response from UC I'll exchange them anyway. There's cable ends missing and the little ferrules gone too. Bummer.

I tried adjusting the brakes, but that seemed to be a bit of an excersise in futility so I laid off and taped the bars. Which turned out fairly poorly. I blame the brake cables! What a pain!


So now i'm waiting to hear from Universal and reading up on brake adjusting tips to hopefully get them dialed in.

It begins!

Got the (i think?) last piece of the parts list today from Pacific bikes. I needed a good stack of headset spacers. Brought the frame in to have it reamed/faced/chased as well. Hopefully the build starts big tomorrow!



Got the cassette on, rim strips on and tires mounted.



Gonna try and get into the BikeKitchen tomorrow after work. Plans to at least get the headset on, BB in and steerer cut. And as much else as I can too.

Last round of parts

Stopped by Performance last night for the last group of parts.

Vittoria Zaffiro Tires

What a pain in the ass to mount. Tollerances on Vittora tires are tight! These were worst to mount than the Rubino slicks I bought for my IRO.

Cateye Mity 8 Computer


Shimano Deore Rear Derailleur

I actually bought that one a while ago from Nashbar.com. I'm not sure if it's going to work with the DT shifters, but was told to give it a shot anyway.

More parts: almost ready!

MOAR PARTS PLS. KTHX.

Shimano DT shifters. Pricey little guys!


Saucy Red Salsa Bar tape.


DA Cables


Hanger. Teehee.


105 Front Derailleur


Deore-Weinmann Rim Combo from Harris Cyclery

Long Haul Trucker!

Picked up a 56cm Long Haul Trucker from Universal Cycles. I hate frame sizing! This damn thing better fit! Rivendell would have a field day with me.


This sticker, along with many others will likely be removed.


Like that color.

Part-fest II!

Some parts are fairly universal, so I started getting some new parts early on that I got some really good deals on.

Shimano Double Cranks


Octalink Bottom Bracket


9 Speed Chain


Nashbar 9 speed Cassette


Tektro Hooded Levers.

I bought these off a guy on Craigslist who was parting out his Masi Fixed gear

Unknown stem

Bought this stem off a guy at a bike swap. It should work, my only concern is that the reach is too far with the moustache bars. Hopefully not.

Nitto Aluminum Moustache Bars

Bought these used off a guy on my forum.

Fizik Rondine Saddle

Picked up a pretty cheap deal on a Rondine that came with a small little ICS pack from SteepandCheap.com.

The LHT epic begins!

The past year I've been doing quite a bit of biking. I've also being trying to live a little more car-free. After building up the IRO (Blog Here) I decided that I would like to try and stop using the bus as well and do all my work/back commuting via bike. Being that I live up in Twin Peaks riding a fixed gear up and down everyday is often more work than it's worth. I can't really carry anything too large for too long, and the idea of doing short little tours into the next county overnight is increasingly more attractive. So I sold off some extra parts I had around, and an old 10-speed schwinn for quite a bit of money which got this project off the ground. The Schwinn was totally not an eligible candidate for use. It's too heavy, doesn't have anyway to hook up a rack, and uses 27" tires. So the search for an appropriate frame began.

There's actually a lot of decent touring completes out there. Cannondale T2000/800, Trek 520 and the Surly Long Haul Trucker. The C-dale/520 are out of my price range, and the LHT has been sold out for awhlile now. The other problem is that I don't like road drops. I like riding on the flats and although I could put inline cross levers on it as well, it's heavier and I lose all that bar space. I wanted moustache bars and downtube shifters so any money spent on that would put the budget over the top.

So frame up using used parts seemed like the way to go. I got some parts off of Nashbar early on that I knew would be universal, but then got stuck and couldn't do much more without a frame to know tube sizes. I scoured craigslist for weeks trying to find something that would work and am still striking out. I have picked up a frame in the meantime though, so onward with the Long Haul Trucker!