So Saturday was the big build day. I was very excited. Unlike conversion projects based on old bikes being re-used, this was a simpler process as it didn’t involve stripping down and reconditioning anything. It was a bolt-on affair, which is much simpler. But it involved new technologies for this bot, and was fraught with it’s own little challenges.

All my remaining parts had arrived over the past week, and all that remained were some various small items, which I picked up on our Saturday FixCrawl, so by noonish I was home and ready to go. Brief one hour interlude to assist wifebot(tm) with some stuff, and off to the wrongRoom(tm) I went, caffee thermos in hand, to attack my project. The way build days usually go for me is that i get about an hour in and find a critical failure in my plot, which forces a delay while i solve. Didn’t happen until the end, this time, and it was OK.

This is my semi-traditional pre-build extrusion. Please note about 33 parts containing 100% minimum awesome.

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Stage 01: Front End

I started with the headset, as this was my least familiar territory. The Look frame came complete with a Cane Creek integrated headset, which was awesome, but I wasn’t familiar with how to use the compression bolt. I read up on it online, and learned about the star nut, how the compression bolt expands it in the steerer tube to hold the fork in place before you secure the stem. Sure, OK. Dutifully following instructions as provided by the stem manufacturer (I’m like that) I dug out my file, rounded the edges of the steerer tube, sanded for burrs on the tube itself, then dropped my 18mm worth of carbon spacers onto it, loosely set the stem in place, and then regarded my headset pieces parts, which, as had confounded me initially, did not at all look like the star nut and compression bolt I had read about.

Lung loaned me a star nut installation tool and explained it’s use, and i was prepared for an installation that required the bolt to be removed, and the installation tool using the threaded hole in the star nut to get it up IN there, or down there as it were. However, as you can see, not the same. It’s a special Look system, and confounded me until I realized it was assembled out of order. I couldn’t figure out how to expand the flanged ring, as if it had started to expand, it couldn’t get into the tube, and if it hadn’t, it got lost in the hole and didn’t work. However, I experimented until I figured it out:

The expander piece was cone-shaped, and when I reversed it, and put the flanged ring between it and the cap above, the tightening of the integrated compression bolt would force the expansion as desired. So, armed with this theory, I executed same, and it worked very well. I got the front end set up as described in my literature: tight enough to hold things in place, loose enough to allow the fork to rotate without binding, spacers just loose enough to be able to be finger rotated.

Excellent! Stem secured thereafter, my sweet, sweet Thomson X2.

Here’s a shot of the special Look top cap holding it all together. Nice!

Stage 02: Cranks

Working out the bottom bracket and cranks was kind of interesting, because again, it differed in technology some from what i was used to. For one thing, the crank bolts are integrated and are not greased.

For another, while I did have a Shimano compatible cartridge bottom bracket installer tool, it didn’t QUITE fit the same teeth as the splining on the Miche bottom bracket cups. It was close, but like a millimeter too big in diameter. But as I was technically capable of screwing the cups in farther than flush, it wasn’t a problem. On the drive side, I hand screwed a liberally greased cup to flush, then inserted the cartridge tight against it from the opposite side, then spun the non-drive cup on. As it got close, it was time to use my tool gently, but a second challenge: my tool has a long rod coming out of the center of it, which is inserted into the hollow core of the square taper spindle… however, the Miche spindle is hollow only to a point, where it’s plugged. So, the teeth of my tool didn’t even reach the splines of the cup. So, I improvised with a small screwdriver and some leverage, and got it into place.

The Miche Piste Advanced crankset is a beautiful thing, I say. I have no remorse whatsoever on this little carbon-spent gem.

I have to say, using a frame from 2003 that was well cared-for, it was a refreshing change not to have any threading issues on the bottom bracket cups whatsoever. On they went, correct orientation of course, and no issues! What’s even MORE unusual, in my experience? I had no problems with the pedals either, despite being used. On they went, no threading mishaps, well greased, good to go.

Stage 03: Brake

Brakes aren’t the most glamorous thing, but I quite like this one. The SCR-3 is the same one that Lung uses on Loosey. I admit, I bought it for the ’3′ despite lighter models available from CC, but what the hell. Respect the brand! Please note the highly elusive brake pads I installed. I saw them on the Kool-Stop site but had some difficulty actually securing the dual compound road/wet design in Dura Type compatibility. But there they are, and brand aware for both the bike schema and the TRDL way. I have to admit, in this regard, as well as in a few others, it was nice to be able to refer to my road bike to check orientations and configurations. Though that bike uses Dura Ace, it was similar enough that I was able to answer some of my simple questions using the road bike as a case study.

Stage 04: Wheels

Things were going better than I anticipated, and I was getting superstitious. No headset problems? No crank problems? No PEDAL threading issues? I knew the wheels were going to bite me. You know, binding up the tube in the tyre, struggling with a pesky spoke protrusion or something, or even just the classic stubborn bead.

And yet, wow. rim tape, tube, tyre, air and cap went together in a snap, even with a social circle gathered around the garage for distraction.

Back wheel, same. Of course, until the drivetrain was connected, we still wouldn’t KNOW, dude.

Stage 05: Drivetrain

This was the moment of truth. I had calculated my magic gear, had my 46/15 good to go, pulled out my DED chain, and discovered a number of challenging issues, chief among them, no masterlink. OK, that’s not a deal breaker. However, I didn’t really note this until after I had begun the process of breaking links one at a time to get to the exact length I needed for this gearing. And by then, it was too late: I had popped the pins OUT, so they weren’t going back in. And I tried. For an hour. Screwed! Fortunately, Freewheel came through, having one 1/8" masterlink in stock. So I raced down there in the threatening light sprinkles, under a dubious sky, and grabbed it. For a sweet, sweet, appropriate three bucks I say! Lucky for me, and again, atypical, to have discovered this issue shortly before they closed, and not after.

So, the 1/8" masterlink took a little more effort than the 3/32" ones I’ve used on the other bikes, because it’s a three piece affair: a male, a female, and a locking plate that secures the one to the other. It took a little work with a screwdriver, greasy hands, greasy chain, etc. But soon enough, the success were mine!

And this was where, as was becoming clear as I assembled, I had too much chain slack. It was like I needed half of one link removed. But I wasn’t sweating it. After all, I had my ace in the hole:

Adjustable vertical drops. 5mm is a pretty big margin, when dealing with chain slack and already wielding a half-link. The drops, as you can see above, were set to the closest point by default (meaning the wheel would be as close to the center of the frame as possible, in the semi-aero design of this geometry that puts the rear tyre millimeters from the downtube.

Sweet! So, I moved these back and forth until settling on the middle dimension, which was what I test measured before I started all of this magic gear business.

This con-fused mish-mash shows the drivetrain complete! I was, as the kids say, stoked.

Stage 06: Wrap-up

Man, this was awesome. The one day build was finally coming together. My garage neighbor Redding came by and we talked economic policy and other probably boring topics while I wrapped one of my bar ends, then rewrapped it (I always wrap to tightly the first time and run out of tape, and have to go back and do it again to get it right); wrapped the other side, taped it up, installed these sweet new larger blinkie bar ends, and brought it down. I seated the Brooks saddle at the same dimensional increment on the Ergopost’s markers as with my Road Look, but since this frame is one size larger, I decided to bring the saddle down a bit more to even it out.

The moment of truth: Test ride! Not having the brake cable installed* I wasn’t going to bomb down the street to my villainous end, but I took some loops back and forth along the street and man, what a RIDE. Tight, responsive, and the gearing feels awesome. I was delighted. Enthused!

*The remaining tasks include brake and badging. I ran out of time to string the brake cable before being summoned to come in for the night, so I have to take care of that. Excluding these two remaining details, and including the Freewheel trip, lots of reading of my Zinn book, etc the build-up took 5 hours. Five thrilling hours.

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Here are a few other pics.

And this one’s for Joblue:

You can see all the pics, including some not posted here, in the [fu]Villain{(tm) gallery on Flickr.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: Villain 3.0 – Strippery!
2. Bike Build Process Log: Villain 3.0 – Completeds
3. Bike Build Process Log: Villain 3.0 – Swappery