hooBUDDY. when WR and i dropped off our frames at the powdercoaters (maas brothers in livermore) two wednesdays ago, i had no idea what the results would be. i mean, they come highly recommended by one of the more reputable shops in SF (freewheel bikes), but given his last nightmare with powdercoating (in which they essentially ruined his forks), i had the fears. i always have the fears at my first interaction with a new service provider, though, so i sat back, picked the color i wanted, and executed.

the first thing i noticed when we got em back (besides the fact that they looked AMAZING), was that because they have experience with bicycles, they knew what to tape off. my BB threads, my steerer tube threads, my shifter mount threads, my derailleur hanger threads, my effing CHAIN TENSIONER THREADS — all of it had been taped off and was smooth steel. very professional, very impressive, and combined with the outstanding color quality and the cost, has definitely made them my go-to choice from now on for coloring bikes. total win.

the color of the bianchi will not ever be able to be seen in process pics, i fear. i’ll keep trying over the course of the project, but it’s such an odd color that i fear cameras won’t be able to catch it without being manned by some sort of very experienced photographer. it’s what i call "cocaine white," and it’s essentially a pearlescent almost-silver with metalFlake inclusions that make it sparkle. when it’s indoors, it goes from looking cream to looking gray to looking white. when it’s outdoors, however, that fucker lights up in the most brilliant metalFlake white color you’ve ever seen. it’s simply GORGEOUS.

and here’s a detail shot of where the seatstays meet the seat tube — the only branded place left, as it had an embossed "bianchi" there, which i am LOVING…

so with everything back in the shop, i started putting shit together. first, the BB. i got a campagnolo BB for 5 effing dollars at a bike swap some months back, and that was the first to go on. it wasn’t easy, though. the sandblasting that maas did obviously left some grit in the threads of the BB shell, so i had to use a TON of grease and i had to twist each cup in, then back it out, regrease it, and twist it in again. additionally, because this BB is used, it’s not nearly as smooth as i’d like or hope it to be. it spins just fine (tested it quickly with a set of cranks i had laying around), but it doesn’t whip around like it should. but hey, 5 dollars, campy, what do i care…

next up, tossed on the seat binder bolt. a little bit difficult here, because the holes for same had not been taped off (as i imagined they wouldn’t, and quite frankly, SHOULDN’T be). so it was a struggle to pop it through, but once it was in, everything was fine…

moving forward from there, i pressed in the HS cups. this was pretty tough, actually, because the ghettoGrown HS cup press i made is just BARELY not long enough to press em both at once into this longer head tube. so i had to do em one at a time, which had me fearing, because that puts one plate ON the fresh powdercoat as you press in the first cup. additionally, my HS is a tange-levin, so the top cup isn’t a cup, it’s more like a backwards race. the cup faces DOWN on the top, and is the first threaded piece you put on. what this means is that when pressing the top cup, i had the other plate of the press on a surface that would adversely affect the operation of the HS if deformed in any way. but it all worked out in the end, and the HS cups were pressed…

then i went to install the fork crown race, and things started getting tricky. see, the steerer tube had been sandblasted clean, so where the race mounts was fresh and clean of any additional surface area or texture. additionally, i discovered that my race had a crack in it. add these two fact together and what you get is, in essence, a fraction of a mm too much space between the diameters of the two pieces. the race basically just dropped right into place without needing a setter. this is not optimal. it is sub-optimal. so i thought, "hey! i have another tange-levin 1-inch HS in my little metal locking box over there!" except that box is locked. and i have no idea where the keys are. FUCK. so here’s what i did. using a shit-ton of grease and a very methodical, slow assembly process in which i intentionally overtightened the first top HS cup, then backed it off INTO the locknut once THAT was set — i made it work like fucking butter. no wiggle-waggle front-to-back in the fork, and no bound bearings. it spins smooth as silk and it’s solid. WIN. and even though it means that i’ll have to install a whole new HS eventually, this is a big deal to have made this old one work…

and that was it. i still have some other parts i can put on, such as a quill stem, the derailleurs, the shifter levers, and maybe some cranks (gotta work out some chainwheel shit first), and eventually, bars (i need to receive an anticipated shipment first), and some of that shit may end up going on this very weekend. but for now, we wait at this point…

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