Step 4 - Components

Tying up a lot of loose ends at the minute with this build, and most of those loose ends are down to the bikes components. As you can see, all the parts here are black, which is the general theme... black parts on a white frame. The wheels have come up really nicely. I got the original 8 speed cassette off and fitted the single speed conversion kit, great. The 700x23 Vittoria tyres fit and look superb. Just need to wait until the wheels are on the bike to sort out the spacing around the sprocket for sake of chain alignment. The black headset arrived, looks great. Got some alloy flat bars, looks good with the stem as they are a similar finish. Got a post from Ebay, but it's smaller in diameter than the  25.4 mm stamp on it, but all's good with the use if the silver shim you see around it. The carbon forks need a bit of a clean and the headset crown race knocking on to them. Keeping things clean and tidy will be helped by the mudguards, which are minimal lightweight items suitable for use with slim tyres and racing bike frame and forks.  All looking good, just need a few more bits like a saddle, chain, brake cable. But on the subject of brakes, I can't use the levers I've previously talked about. They are for oversized bars, my bars are standard size and I thought I'd be able to use shims to fit them. But placing them over the bars it looks like this wouldn't be realistic as the shims would need to be crazy thick, not an off the shelf item.

Step 3 - Painting the frame

Here's my frame, literally hanging out to dry. I further proved to myself with this paintjob that patience is essential. As I live in the UK, I had to wait a long time for the weather to pick up so I could paint the frame. It rained every day for a week, and was not warm enough, plus I was dying to get the ball rolling. When the weather turned around though, I was straight outside applying the primer. I applied a bit, rubbed it down with very fine sandpaper, then applied some more, in order to get a smoother finish. I waited a day for it to harden before I went near it with the main top coat. Due to the strong colour underneath, this took a few very patient coats, but the coat looked great. Where I tripped up though and got a bit inpatient, was with the lacquer. I should have waited 24 hours, but rushing a bit I waited 12. This meant that the paint had not yet hardened properly, and this caused the lacquer to react with the paint and cause this problem...

If you can't see the detail in this photo, it caused a spiders web sort of effect... not pretty. My impatience meant I had to wait for paint and lacquer to harden for another 24 hours, before I had to rub it down and apply more white paint. On the plus side the frame looks great, nice and bright. All I need to do now is wait another 24 hours, apply the final coat of lacquer and start assembling the bike... great! I tried my best to get a good finish with spray cans, there is a limit to the finish quality using them. I wont quite get a gloss effect, and not quite matte, more of a satin. But as long as it looks good I don't mind. I just need all the components now, roll on step 4...

Step 2: Some drivetrain parts...

Here we have my crankset. They are an old Campagnolo set, but no idea which model. The ring you see is a 42 tooth, I've removed the big ring and put this small one on the outside. I gave it a good clean with some paraffin and it came up great, but the cranks were still all old and worn out looking.  I got some fine grain sandpaper, some wire wool and some solvol, then two and a half hours later (along with a few blisters) the result is the crank you see on top. Hard work it may have been, but I'm really happy with the result.

Here's the little device I got my hands on through a friend for a fiver... bargain! Due to my frame having vertical rather than horizontal dropouts, this is required on for chain tension, otherwise it would be a bit too difficult to achieve the right chain tension. Plus it may even neaten up the look of the bike as it mounts in the rear mech hanger, so there are no vacant holes making the bike look half finished.

Step 1: Prepare the frame & What's this bike all about?

So what's this bike all about? Well I wont bore you with too many details. so this is it in a nutshell. I got the bike 12 years ago as my first road bike and it was used back then and was obviously on its second paint job. I stripped it, got it painted and rebuilt it as a nine speed time trial racer. I used it regularly and enjoyed the bike greatly, but sure enough after a while it was hung up in the garage and hung there sadly for at least 8 years. So now I think it's time I put it to good use. Such as the latest fashion trend, I'm going down the low maintenance single speed route. The frame itself is a Bill Nickson, Reynolds 653 affair, but not ideally suited to single speed as it's not got horizontal dropouts at the rear, but that can be cured with the use of a chain tensioner that fits into the rear derailleur hanger. It's the small details I like about this frame which is why I'm using it, such as the Cinelli bottom bracket...

So it's clear I've been rubbing it down and preparing it for paint. I used paraffin to clean the dirt off and then wet and dry sandpaper to achieve a smooth finish. Prep for paint as a rule is 90% prep and 10% paint in terms of time spent, and this really is no exception. Just a little bit more TLC and this will be ready for primer. Not sure of what colour of top coat yet, maybe white, but it'll be the frames fourth paint job, at least!

To keep it looking smart I'm going to use as many black components as I can, certain components will be changed completely such as the handle bars, as I want to use flat or riser bars, instead of the traditional dropped bar for sake of comfort. This has a knock on effect though, such as the need to use different brake levers...

A top man in a bike shop in Chester sorted me out with these, they are a flat bat lever designed to be used with a caliper brake, as a regular V brake lever does not pull through enough cable for effective braking. I'm sure they'll look right at home with all the other black components, no idea who makes them though. I'll go through the various components I'll be using and why throughout the writing of the blog, but for now, primer awaits...