The Loto was delivered today when I was on my way home from work and I was very impressed with the packing, took lots of pictures and saved all the pool noodles in case I ever need to send a bike to someone.







It came with a box of goodies, the derailleurs, noodle brake, crankset, cables, housing, a bead jack! …..



And one of my favorite little things: the headset bearings, already greased, and in the perfect little container to hold them. How cute is this little headset bearing holder? I didn’t even know this existed 😁




Only hiccup I came across was the stem wedge bolt must’ve fallen out of the box during shipping but I was able to dig around in my growing stash of parts and I found a stem wedge bolt that would work … but then I decided to change the stem to a little shorter one … but that stem didn’t have a clamp bolt ….. so one thing I learned today: there might just be as many variations of stem clamp bolts as there are variations of seatpost sizes... But, after much searching I finally found one that would work!

And here’s my progress so far:

Installed the headset, stem and handlebars, put on the wheels from my mystery Raleigh, and put the seatpost in and got it all somewhat close to where I like things. One thing about spending a lot of time working on bikes: you get really good at making bikes fit you. After putting this much together I sat on the bike to test the fit and I can already tell it’s going to be a great fit. Plus, look how pretty it is!!! 😍 Blue is my favorite color, I love all blues, and out of all the different shades of blue this bike is exactly my favorite color of blue, cerulean. Honestly I fell in love with this bike the first time I saw MadHonk’s ad and I have to say, it’s even prettier in person. The pearlish white with the cerulean blue, it’s just 😙🤌 perfect!

Next thing to do is add the crankset, derailleurs, cables and housing, brakes and pedals. But I already have most of that thanks to MadHonk, so I think I should be able to get this done in the next few days after work. I’ll post more pictures as I progress. Can’t wait to ride it though, the frame set was so light, I feel like I’m going to fly on this bike!