Today was a HUGE day int he evolution of the wrongBike(tm).

It went from looking like bike parts… to looking like a bike.

I started by utilizing the new allen head 5/16" bolt and nut I got at the hardware store as a replacement stem clamp bolt, and it worked. I finally got the bars on, and could really see how these crazy arcs look on the bike. Granted, we won’t know how they RIDE just yet, but they look AWESOME.

I was still unable to get the cog off the Eno hub, and the front fork problem remained, and my seatpost issue was not resolved, so I spent a little time working on some of this other stuff. I mounted the brake calipers in front, for example. I mounted the front brake lever, and the bell (went with the silver) and also prepared my brake cable and housing for install, though I didn’t finalize it until the wheel would be on there. I should mention, on all clamping parts, I’m including a swatch of rubber cut to fit, as a gasket, which I think is a nice touch.

At this point, the inability to proceed was killing me. I wanted to use the car for my next exploratory mission, because I didn’t have a ton of time to work today and I needed flexibility to make multiple stops. Fortunately, wifebot(tm) got back from the gym, so I hopped in and went to Performance to solve the first issue: the cog. He had quite a bit of trouble with it too. He said, at one point, something that chilled my blood: "is this green stuff LocTite on here?"
I almost croaked. MAN. I hadn’t considered that. I thought the green was old lube of some sort. Eventually though, by switching to a different chain wrench, he popped it off. His first wrench was the same as mine, the Park one, and it wasn’t quite working. The second was longer. So, success! Off to Philz for sustenance and coffee, and home to proceed.

This is where I discovered a missing link, nearly literally: I mentioned before, possibly, that my rear eno hub was going to require stretching the chainstays to fit, too, and that troubled me a bit. It was the same with Fix-e back in the day. Anyway, I figured I’d deal when the time came, much like the front. So I set out to put the new 18-tooth cog on the Eno hub, now that the old cog was loosened. It turned out to be a 15 by the way, so that would have been a beast had I attempted to use it. Anyway, I was mildly annoyed that this silver hub had a black lockring, since I went out of my way to get a silver cog. I checked my other eno hub on the wall, and it had a silver lockring. Aha! So I decided to cannabalize that one for this bike. I pulled it down, pulled the lockring, and then installed it on the wrongBike(tm) hub. Gold!

Funny thing, though. While I was holding the other hub, I noticed that the spacing of the wrench seats was asymmetrical, whereas on the wrongBike(tm) hub it’s symmetrical. These are the flat sort of ledges that make the Eno work: you install the wheel, then use a wrench to turn these shelves, which pivot the wheel farther back, allowing you to get dynamic adjustment despite the vertical drops. It’s a brilliant invention for frames like this one. Anyway, hm. SO I decided to caliper them both. Sure enough, the other Eno was a narrower dim, shorter on the non drive side. Question marks haloing my head became exclamation points! So I seated THIS rim as a test fit, and the hub fit perfectly. WHOA. So I quickly switched cogs to this other hub, stripped the tyre off and mounted it here, and in the fastest tyre change of my life to date, I had the other hub installed in minutes, ready to go. Sure it’s got a dark rim technically violating my no black rule… but then again, it was already violated by brake housings, so eff it I say! SUCCESS.

Boom boom boom, like clockwork, the new chain was broken to fit, smart link in place, pivoted the hub into taut chain position, and locked down. Suddenly, I had a complete drivetrain for the first time!

SO STOKED.

Next up, called around the local shops that actually carry track parts, and actually struck gold: American Cyclery, which replaced Freewheel as the shop of choice thanks to superior staff attitude, had a single chrome seatpost in 26.6mm which I theorize will work on my approximately 27mm seat tube. AWESOME. Since I had to go back there to get a replacement brake pad, I was happy about this convergence of errandry.

Last task: what to do about this front form problem. I muscled it for a while now that I could use the bike’s weight and gravity a bit for leverage, but to no avail. There’s NO way I could stretch theme myself, and still doubt that I could get it stretched feasibly with three dudes, due to reach and grip limitations. What I really wanted was some sort of spreader contraption. I had inquired at the bike shops to blank stares. So, I decided to fiddle faddle with parts on hand, as Lung likes to do.

Here we have a vice, with a crank arm as a block. It obviously didn’t work, as it just compresses the left fork blade, but I was working out the physics of the leverage needed. It was clear it needed to be spread from within. Additionally, it would have to be stretched over time so that when you removed the spreader, it wouldn’t just snap back to the old position. In theory. So I went over to Ace up the street, and described my conceived spreader contraption, involving threaded rod, washers and bolts and a makesshift winder handle. The first person was dumbfounded and passed me to the ‘problem solver’. He listened patiently, then exclaimed: "what you need is a REVERSE CLAMP!"… why yes, my friend, that’s what I’m conceiving of… and lo, he HAD them. DUDE. I picked up two types to be safe: a wood block type for woodworking, and a pipe clamp.

3.3 minutes with the wood reverse clamp and I had the forks wider than they need to be. YEEE! So I left them spread overnight, and we’ll see what’s what in the AM.

But man, it’s looking like a bike.

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