After months of scrimping, saving, and accumulating parts, I finally finished this Bridgestone project. As I've mentioned in another thread, I had the frame and fork blasted and powdercoated the "ivy" green color and then painted the lugs black, myself. I re-used the original handlebars (flipped and clipped), stem, headset, front brake caliper, crank, and chainring (42t). I bought a Shimano un73 bb, SRAM chain, EAI 15t cog, Dura Ace lock ring, seat post, Forte in-line brake lever, and black gel bar wrap. I built the wheels using the IRO 32-hole hubs (fixed/free rear), DT Swiss spokes, Sun CR18 rims, and Performance kevlar road tires (28c). I had the cheesy pedals left over from my wife's road bike and I robbed the saddle and bottle holder from my (former) commuter.

I decided to break it in last weekend on a metric century (Civil War Century in Frederick, MD). It rode really well, except that I kept having problems with the headset loosening up. Since the course was only moderately hilly, the 42/15 ratio was just about perfect. I felt like I was flying in the flats and downhill, and only one or two hills really tortured me. Had some cramping in my calves---not sure whether that was from not being used to riding a fixie for so long or from electrolyte imbalance. Otherwise, I was surprised at how well I (and the bike) held up. In commuting on the crappy Baltimore streets downtown over the past week on this bike, I quickly found I could feel every miniscule bump in the road---not used to that. My wrists and butt seemed to take a pounding, too.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. It seems to be a fast, light little bike. I still worry over the headset, but it seems to be a little better since I last tightened it.