Now THAT was an enjoyable way to spend the day!
The day started with a quick 22 mile ride, knowing that I had a build to do. If you haven't been following the news or if you don't live in the south central part of the country, it's been stinkin' hot the last week. I left the house at 8:30 this morning and it was 87-degrees. I got home around 10 and it was 97. At 9:00 as I write this, it's 95.
So...today the build took place indoors. I put down a mat and brought my ghetto bike stand in from the garage, set up a folding table for my tools and spread most of the parts on our workout platform. I turned on Wimbledon and got to work.
I started out marking and cutting the fork...a new experience for me as my other build didn't require any cutting due to a freakishly tall head tube. I had purchased a new 32 TPI hacksaw blade for cutting the carbon and using a suggestion found in the forums, I used a hose clamp to mark off the cut line. Except I found it had a bulge where the clamp part was and thought it would make the cut crooked. So I took an old stem and used it as a guide...worked like a champ and had to make two cuts as the first one didn't give me enough gap to pre-load.
Got the fork installed and pretty much proceeded without issues...except for my front calipers. I'm not sure what's wrong but they're just no behaving very well. They seem to have some play in their movement so I'll probably take 'em apart to see what's loose.
After hanging all the components, I set about cabling. That went fairly smoothly and I left certain things a little long in case I need to make changes as I tune the fit.
I've gotten the shifting close enough to give it a test ride but so far have only straddled the bike, holding onto my workstand for support. I put the max spacers recommended by Ritchey (50mm) given this is a much more aggressive geometry for me but it looks like the seat/handlebar drop isn't that far from what I currently ride.
I'm hoping to take a short test right tomorrow morning but may not get too much done before church...and aftwards it's be 105 and too dang hot to be messing around with fit outside.
Overall I've been impressed with the quality of this frame. The headset and bottom brackets went in without trouble and everything seems to be aligned and fit. All the cable stops are riveted in and are painted the same color as the surrounding area (which may mean the frame was painted with the cable stops already installed?).
I'll provide another update after my test ride and more pics once I've taped the bars. Yes...we do have white garage doors, so I'll get one of those shots posted too.
Oh...I considered flipping it for the photos but decided against it...so go ahead...somebody say it.