Shes done. Finally. This was a bit of an epic job, it took almost 16 months but in reality the job of frame papering was the main sticking point. Papering, was mind numbingly boring and extremely time consuming but the finish is a talking point, I’ve even had a couple of people even thought the finish was standard.
The final job was getting a front chain ring to match the gearing. I could have gone backwards and forwards to the bike shop many times in order to find the perfect match of gearing to chain ring pitch so I cheated a little and simply took the bike to a shop and got them to do it. Good job too, the chain ring fits the crank to perfection, there is about 1 mm of a gap between the crank arms and the bottom bracket and the chain wheel is pretty much dead centre with the gear set. From my eight available gears I can get all but the lowest. Melbourne is pretty flat so that’s fine.
I’ve been on a couple of short rides. She goes well. There is still an issue with he fork and headset. A tiny amount of play in the steering that tightening the headset just won’t remove. Ideally I’d like some straighter forks simply for aesthetics so I’ll be keeping a eye out. Could be a hard find as one inch forks are a rarity these days.
Weight wise, I’ve not put her on the scales and honestly I don’t care. This bike was about breathing life into a frame heading to the skip. Yes, there was a budget and yes it was completely blown. In hindsight maybe an ebay find for $100 would have been cheaper but I’ve got satisfaction in building it and its something unique. In short I’m happy.