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Hi,
now that Xmas is over, my wife's Bleriot needs parts. She got a few as presents, but I'd forgotten what a slog it is. If, for example, you are looking at seaposts. Sounds simple enough, but my gal has long femurs for her size. To get her previous bike to work I used a triathlete's adapter
reversed to get the saddle further back. This required reversing the seapost chuck which was a pain to get back together. It worked, after days of finagling and swearing.

Her new frame is a size larger, and I'm hoping things go easier.
We will see. The post I wanted to try was $80-90 in a shop, I found
a closeout EA70 on the internet, Nashbar I think, and that should come in a day or two. It only has a few more millimeters setback than a regular post; but the Rivendell is a very relaxed frame and that may be enough (crossing my fingers).

I got her a new rear hub that was super quality, but a few years old.
Got a great deal on it. $60, the new ones aren't much different and go for over $200. She doesn't like the grey color. Well, maybe ebay will come to my rescue. I may sell the old one, or use it in back and get a shinier one up front. Most people don't pay much attention to the rear hub, buried as it is, in all that visual clutter of spokes and derailleur and rack.

I was showing her bar tape, and found the new Soma bar tape, there is one they call Camo Brown that I may put on my bike next year. If you ride, you might want to check their tape out, it gets good buzz. I usually go with black; but I may go wild and crazy

This will likely be her last bike, and I want it to be nice. Some components, wheels, hubs, pedals, are pretty important to the way the bike feels. We usually get very good, but not top of the line stuff.
For example, I got her a 105 crank that I saw on sale. That is two steps down from the top, but is actually the same as my 4 year old Ultegra crank. Ultegra is one step down from the top, and Ultegra parts can be more durable than the top of the line.

You can get a pair of brakes for that frame for $50. They are good enough that Rivendell sells them. My wife doesn't have the strongest hands, so I have ordered one Pauls brake. Pauls is all American, made here and they sweat the details that affect performance. Just one costs $150. Ouch.

For the rear brake we will get the cheap one. The rear brake doesn't do all that much, and you don't really want to lock up the rear wheel, especially in a corner.

I am trying to get her XTR hubs and pedals. These have wonderful bearings. When they are new, they feel frictionless. Most have never ridden a truly efficent bicycle, and are shocked when they put their foot down on the pedal and feel the bike almost lunge forward.

I bought this month's Cycling Plus, it's a Brit mag and one of the best. They were handing out awards, and said they liked the Acros bottom brackets. You can't find them. The website is new, there is place to connect you to a dealer in Germany, but it doesn't work. A google search turned up nothing. I figure it would cost 3 or 4 times
what a Shimano BB would cost.Prob more for their high tech ceramic models.

So I prob wouldn't do it, but that sort of thing adds to the feeling I get when I do this. Sort of like running up a sand dune, you are running as best you can, but you aren't going anywhere. It's not really like that, I am making good progress on the project, but it feels that way some days.

ME.Alex

"Got it one piece at a time, and cost me a bloody fortune, next time I'm picking me up a package deal....
Summer's already gone and i didn't even ride, why'd i bother doin' it diy"

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No company is going to reflect your values, or at least mine. Sometimes ya gotta go commado