This past couple weeks have gone by in a blur. While moving a metric ton of junk and sorting through family stuff with my pop. I told him about what I needed to finish the McAuley. I was telling him about the cheap clamp style cable stop for the front brake I’d need to order because the dura ace/600 headset wrenches were really expensive and the co-op didn’t have them. I can’t bring myself to put vice grips on a pristine 600 headset.

“What, this wrench?” He said with a **** eating grin. My pop really is the coolest, I tell ya. (We also found a cable stop that will totally work in his stash of parts!)


Bearings weren’t as bad as I was expecting. Now full of Phil’s and smooth like butter. I didn’t take pictures of this part really. I was excited to finish!

Couple days later it was finally time to knock out the brakes and finish the build. I bought this set as an easy, complete package to get me on the road. This being the first set of cantis I’ve bought I trusted that everything I needed was in the bag. I have since learned my lesson.

By now my guess is you found missing part. Yeah.. no mounting bolts. Totally deflated me.

A few days later, I went to the co-op to sift through the bins for a set of mounting bolts. I could’ve gone to the hardware store. I have no idea why I didn’t. But while at the co-op, I got a set of cantilevers with bolts and some dirty, but very gently used kool stops for very, very cheap. I call it a win. Scrubbed up the koolstops and we’re ready for assembly and installation!


Once I had all the parts, installation went smoothly. I made sure the threads were clean and greased. I adjusted the pads so the cantilever arm was level when making contact with the rim, like I said, mostly a breeze. Then I grabbed the cable ends to make the straddle cable, and it hit me. I picked the only set of cantilevers that require a double barrel straddle cable as my cheap, easy, quick fix. Again.. What a maroon.

Another week goes by..

I get to the co-op and dig through a million cables and a million little pieces of hardware to try and find either a correct straddle cable or one of those bolt on/clamp barrel for the single straddle cable to make something work. I’ve used them before on my motorcycle. They are sketchy but they work… until they don’t lol So just a temp fix.

I found one straddle Cable! but it seemed like I was doomed to order something online.

A couple of days ago when running errands I decided to stop in at one of the local bike shops just to check. These guys have been around for a while but are not CnV friendly. The guy is super grumpy and if you’re not buying a $7000 E bike he won’t give you the time of day. He didn’t have the right straddle cable, but he did have a barrel! For significantly less than on eBay too. Even though he’s an a******, I’m happy I went in.

Just like that, I had everything to finish. I so the next day I had off work, I threw together the new straddle cable adjusted the seat a touch, stretched the brake cables a little and ran the barrel adjusters out. Pumped up the tires took a step back to look at the bike. Something told me the handlebars could be rotated just a slosh counterclockwise. This is not a Crit bike, and I wanted the ride to be more comfortable than fast.



And let me tell you, I’m glad I did. This bike rides like if an old school monster truck with a 545 big block and a Cadillac had a baby. I can’t express how perfect the gearing is. Or how comfortable I feel on this bike. I know there is a lot fancier out there but man, I am so very, very happy with how this experiment turned out. French fit works here! And I’m so excited to be able to ride in the rain and go off into the parks! Here it is on the shake down ride to the cafe.