Friday, August 27, 2010

Frame and Parts Arrive


All the ebay orders, the awesome Surly Pacer frame, and a bunch of Velo Orange parts are all collected in a box in my living room. Here are some pics:


Japanese newspaper packing for the frame shipped from Rivendell - nice that they re-use all of the packing materials from their Japanese parts suppliers. Also, thanks to the guys at Rivendell for doing me a favor shipping the (non-Rivendell) frame to me.


Trousers checking out the cool vintage Shimano 600 Arabesque front dérailleur.


Dr. Chocolate is very skeptical of all of this business.

Inspiration

I've been doing a ton of web research lately. It all started when I first read about Rivendell bikes and what they are all about and I realized that I was already enjoying that type of riding and my current felt racing bike really wasn't fitting the type of riding I've been enjoying. The felt is like a Lamborghini: fast, awesome looking, kind of uncomfortable, and impractical. The new bike is going to be more like a BMW: not as fast, still awesome looking, comfortable, and practical.




My research into Randonneur bike led me to some images of Japanese made Grand Bois bikes seen above that are my inspiration for this new build. I love the sky blue frame with silver components and leather touches. I also like the white tires which look cool and won't scuff the walls in my apartment like the black tires do now.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

FIRE IT UP AGAIN

I'm building a bike. I want to document it. I can't think of a better place to do it.