Build outs are moving along…

The first US made frame left the shop for Missouri yesterday.  The first two complete are moving along and will be finished today.  That is if I can manage to build each one according to the specifications the new owners and I created.  A multi-tasker I am not.  The two builds are similar, but with obvious visual differences that should make it easy to build out according to the spec sheet and build box for each one.  However, there’s that word ‘should.’  Should be easy.  

To make the build easy, I wrote each owner’s name on painters tape and fixed it to the top tube.  One bike for Jason, one bike for Mark.  Easy peasy.  First thing, both bikes are getting the same headset.  Easy.  Second task, one bike gets a black SRAM crank, the other a silver Sugino.  Easy enough, right?  Nope.  The first thing I do is install the bottom brackets in the wrong frame.  Error discovered before cranks are installed.  No problem.  Moving on.

Cranks are installed and I fit the wheels into each frame.  Next, bolt on the derailleurs.  Mark gets an X.9/Rival combo, Jason gets a Rival/Apex combo.  Double check.  I know that Jason’s wheels are black H+Son TB14 and Mark’s are Pacenti SL23, both with Clément MSO tires and both with black White Industries T11 hubs.  I look at the wheels and derailleurs and see that they don’t match up.  Damn.  Switch the derailleurs.  I’m loosing it.  

Okay got it.  Get the chains on and then get bars/stems and shifters installed.  Mark’s has Woodchipper bars, Jason’s going with the Cowbell.  Both are built with SRAM Rival shifters.  Okay, that’s correct.  They are looking like bikes.  Time to take a picture of each one and e-mail to Mark and Jason.  I’m on a roll.

Reply back from Jason:  “I thought we had settled on the H+Son rims and what I see on that bike are different.”  *facepalm*  Easy enough to switch out the wheels.  Then as I’m stringing the rear derailleur cable on Mark’s bike I realize that I did have the derailleurs installed on the correct frames the first time, but it was the incorrect wheel that threw me off.  One more derailleur swap.  Now I need to double/triple/quadruple check the frame size to make sure I’m building up the correct frame size, because by now I’m surely losing it.  Whew!  Now everything is correct.  Correct wheels.  Proper derailleurs.  Seat post, bar, stem…  Everything is good to go.  Luckily, both bikes are being built with Paul’s Mini-Moto brakes so I can’t go wrong there.  By now it’s 8:00 and I think I’m in a good spot to finish up the builds the next morning.  I mean why take any more chances.  

And the next bikes that get built, yeah, one at a time because I suck at multi-tasking.  

First two with wrong wheels and derailleurs.  The two here look like different oranges.  Orange is a difficult color to photograph so the color looks correct.  The bike in the background is more like the actual orange, but both are the same orange.  Go figure.

The salmon colored KoolStop pads are actually very close to the actual orange.

(What’s playing:  R.E.M. Voice of Harold)