By blackmountaincycles,
Filed under: Uncategorized
There’s lots of green in the shop. Spring must be fast approaching. Well, a little gray and orange too. Variety and all that. It’s been a busy several weeks since the frames arrived. A lot of frame prep happened. Frame prep involves:
- Chasing and facing the bottom bracket.
- Facing the head tube and crown race seat (and installing a headset if required).
- installing dropout adjusting screws (grease on the threads and a bit of Loctite on the end where the nut is installed).
- Installing the front derailleur roller.
- Cleaning the paint out of the rear brake and front derailleur threaded bosses and installing the adjusters with grease on the threads.
- Repacking frame in box and either sending it to its new home or building it up.
In the category of building up the frames, there are five folks out there pedaling around on their new Black Mountain Cycles monster cross (I usually just call them cross bikes) bikes. Three are in the area, but two required packing the bike after assembling it and dialing in everything. That’s always a mixed bag for me. I spend quite a bit of time building the bike, getting the cable lengths just so, taping the bars…then I have to take it all apart, pack it as carefully as I can knowing that the shipping company won’t be so kind with it, and hope it all gets to its destination and can easily be reassembled. So far so good with all the bikes I’ve sent out.
Here’s a few of the recent builds and more to come next week.
Sam’s cross bike was built with the cross build kit #1 with upgraded White Industries cranks, Paul Components Mini-Moto brakes, and I built the wheels extra stout for him with 36 hole Mavic A719 rims.
Mark’s cross bike was built with parts from his Cannondale road bike which met an unfortunate end. The cranks, shifters, bars, stem, front wheel, seat were salvaged. A new rear wheel, TRP mini v brakes, rear derailleur and cassette, and it’s like a new bike.
Eric’s cross bike got a full custom parts spec build. It’s mainly Shimano 105 with a triple crank and wide range cassette with and SLX rear derailleur. Brakes are the great Paul Components Touring Cantis. Rear hub is White Industries and front is a Son Delux wide that powers the B&M Luxos U light with USB charger. This one will see a lot of Bay Area mixed-terrain rando rides.
This is Chris’s cross bike which has already seen a bit of riding in Idaho despite the snow. This was built with Shimano 9-speed bar-con shifters and an LX T661 rear derailleur. I’m glad Shimano has these more traditional looking derailleurs available still. Wheels are 105 hubs with Mavic Open Pro rims. Brakes again are Paul Touring Cantis with Shimano BR-600 levers. White Industries crankset with a CX70 front derailleur and Thomson stem and seat post round it out.
Joe’s first Black Mountain Cycles bike was one of the first root beer colored frames. It was built pretty much just like this with Nitto Moustache bars. However, it was stolen in Portland last year. This is the replacement. That’s an IRD Defiant triple crank with that same LX T661 rear derailleur and Shimano 9-speed bar-con shifters. Brakes again are Paul Component Touring Canti. For all the bike press is doing to kill off the cantilever brake in favor of discs, I’m sure installing a lot of these Paul Touring Canti brakes. They just work great.
Well, that’s what I’ve been doing the past couple of weeks. Not much riding, but I did get out on my cross bike recently on a foggy morning where there were a lot of newts doing their slo-mo newt walk across the trails.
(What’s playing: Kris Kristofferson Me and Bobby McGee)
0 responses to “Must be Spring…”
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such gorgeous bikes. you are building the ultimate bicycle. practical, gorgeous and easy to maintain! the only bike that anyone could ever need
Thanks Al!
Any chance that 62cm MUSA frame is still available?
Thanks, Dan
Yes, one 62cm frame available, Dan.