The Birth of a Ride
For months, every time Marcy and I would ride together, she'd complain about her bike and say that she wanted a 29'er but she didn't want to spend the money on a new bike. I, of course, love to spend money on new bikes but didn't want to piss of the s.o. either so I had to hatch a devious plan. First, given my smittenness (is that a word???) with the Selma, my beloved Dos has been sitting un-loved for a couple of months so I knew I had a whole bike's worth of quality components to work with, the problem would be finding a frame that didn't break the bank. Well, my prayers were answers a little over a week ago when a Bikeman.com teammate e-mailed the team about a brand new (ok, he had a couple of rides on it) Dos Niner frame he was selling because he wanted to go full suspension. It was a super good deal and it was in the size I think Marcy needed so I took a gamble and bought it on the down low because I was using the whole deal as a birthday present.
Anybody who has read the blog for a while knows that my mechanical abilities are minimal at best and I had NEVER done a full bike build myself so I planned on having the friendly dudes at Bikeman do the swapping for me but, because of various things beyond my control (I'm impatient, oh wait, that is in my control) I was forced to build it myself. Lucky for me, I picked the frame up Friday and it just so happened that Marcy was out with some friends to I very quickly got to work with a bit of trepidation. Would I be the victor and exit the evening with a shiny, almost new, bike for the spousal unit or would I be crawling back to bikeman with my tail between my legs. Only time would tell.
The Dos pre-op.
The transplant recipient.
Yada, yada, yada, I didn't take enough pictures.
The final product. Schwingy, schwing, schwing.
I am the victor!
I am the victor!
7 comments:
sweeeeeeeeet. Nice work for the S.O.
yeah, she loved it. now we have to wait for it to stop raining. the slugs are building a tram in my back yard.
Very nice! Keep it away from birds.
Nice! I ssooo want to say something about 1" in the rear, and you/Marcy, etc., etc., BUT I won't, because I have SOME respect. Sort of.
Guys who can build houses should not be intimidated by bicycle mechanics.
I mean guys who build houses actually have muscles and bike mechanics have little chicken arms and bunions from standing all day long, a bicycle mechanic would totally lose that fight.
Of course I meant they shouldn't be intimidated by the mechanics OF a bicycle, it's pretty rudimentary stuff compared to building a whole damn house.
Jason: thankfully we both have lots of class
Thom: you're probably right but that doesn't make it any less scary. when I first started wrenching it would take me HOURS just to adjust the rear derailleur.
PLUS, while I AM currently building a house, I don't actually build houses, just design them. The current house construction also has much voo-doo magic involved that scares me.
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