Carried on with the build today and fitted SPD/Flat pedals, LX shifters, LX cassette, LX brake levers, new cheapass front wheel (Joytech hub & Zac 19 rim), new(ish) Vredestein “StreetRazor” slicks, new Ritchey WCS grips, my existing Axiom pannier rack.
The trickiest part of the build today was running the cables and tuning the gears. I don’t do either of these tasks much so it took a while. I also seem to have a tendency to run the cables the wrong way around so derailers don’t sit properly, or leave grommets out so I have to remove and reinstall a cable four times before I get it right.. another plus for singlespeeds.. shuddup! 😉
Once all the gears were on and tuned and the brakes worked, I swapped the old front wheel for the new one and swapped the reflective Vredestein tyres off my Avanti for the original (worn) slicks. Took the bike for a spin.. COOL!! This thing rides super nimble and the gears and brakes are SMOOOOOOOOOTH! What a beast – GT had this (cheap, remember?) frame dialled to my spec’s or something when they built it.. it’s frickin’ AWESOME!
Back inside, I spaced out the brakes and shifters properly (decided to stay with the 670mm riser bar rather than go for skinnier flat bars) and fitted the Ritchey WCS foam grips. Well, actually Quentin fitted the grips – and suffered great pain doing so! The grips were sprayed with metho to help them slip on, and slip on they did, squashing poor Q’s finger under the shift lever. Oops! Thanks for drawing blood for my bike man!
To spoil the bike’s subtle grey on grey looks.. I fit the Axiom rack. I hate racks! But, I’m not carrying everything around Europe in a backpack so a rack is necessary. Used some longer brackets than the ones I had (black too) so the rack could be pushed back further. Another test ride.. schweet! This thing rawks! I like this more than the Avanti I think.. maybe I should take the Avanti and leave this one behind safely locked up? 😛
Have some SKS guards here that look like they might fit, so she’ll look even more daggy soon.. 🙂
Check the current state (GT – Groovy Tourer?):
I’m just a triathlete but that seat looks really far back! Hey, are those racks so you can take me with you?
Yeah, you’re just a triathlete.. 😛
I have a medical condition known as longarmitis-setbackarseis..
"Nice rack!" Yeah.. I only fitted the rack for you.. well, for me.. you’ll be doing all the pedaling.. 😛
Nice bike! Can’t wait to stea… umm, I mean, see it. Yeah, thats the one.
See you in Europe!!
Hey dude, your fancy ‘n’ doesn’t show up in the emails my blog sends hehehe that’ll teach you for varying from the true and righteous path of Standard ASCII. haha 😛
Oh yeah.. your bike is better than mine.. what are you talking about?! 😛
Did you see the Krypto locks I bought? You ain’t gettin’ the GT! Nuh uh! 😛
I’m gonna have to pay more attention to your blog so I can find out where the hell you are.. or.. send me your Euro mobile number (if/when you get it). I’ll get a new SIM over there as soon as I can.
Any idea when/where you first touch down?