Yeah, no kidding. This is the closest I've come to getting a fixed gear that actually fits me, too. I'm giving it a chance, trying to get everything worked out before moving on to something else.

Damn, I should've bought the CDs.

What kind of chainring is that?

BTW, what is the RD2 chainline issue?

With the recommended bottom bracket, the chainline is 45 mm instead of 42.

So if I'm buying Sugino RD Crank Set from Harris Cyclery (http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/cranks/130-single.html), I'm going to have a problem if I order the matching Sugino 103 mm Bottom Bracket BB105 listed right below it? This is for the IRO BFSSFG frame.

i can't wait for mine to get a little character. i feel like a choad riding this perfect-looking bike around. BRING ON THE SCRATCHES B!TCHES

I always remember the Car Talk guys saying that new cars should come "pre-dinged," so that owners of new cars wouldn't flip out their someone opens a door into their side panel or scratches their bumper parallel parking. I don't see why we can't extend that to bikes!

Correct. Unless your rear hub and cog combination also has a 45 mm chainline.

How do I find out what the chainline is for the rearhub and cog? I'm planning on buying a Deep V/Formula Hub wheelset that's machine built (I assume b/c its not built in the shop). Is there another bottom bracket to buy instead?

http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/5296/23640033zy4.jpg
heres mine.. took the pics the day I got it. I need to make a few small adjustments, but its a pretty good ride.

With a track cog, it's going to be 42 mm. The only way around it is to buy a bottom bracket with a 107 mm spindle and mount the chainring on the inside position on the cranks.

Of course that's not the only way. You could re-space and re-dish the wheel too.

I could be wrong, but couldn't you also just get a bottom bracket with a spindle length that resulted in a good chain line with the chainring on the outside?

those guys aren't exactly experts:

"black=1.8mm metal and .2mm of paint
silver=2.0mm of metal and 0mm of paint"

If the spokes are annodized they are losing .01m-.015mm of material or .5%-.75% of the material. or wait.. maybe even half that, i cant remember.

Not saying they are, not saying its true, but I tend to believe it given what a well-respected wheel builder told me.

True, if you don't mind not being able to flip your flip-flop wheel over (which, I imagine, a lot of people don't).

Unfortunately, I don't think anyone makes a bottom bracket with a 97 mm spindle. ;)

After posting this last night, I decided to go ahead and swap the bottom bracket out to fix the chainline. After putting in my UN-54 107 mm BB and switching the chainring to the inside, the chainline was even further off, but to the inside instead of outside. Every time a new inside link tried to mesh onto the cog, the side plate would sit on top of the tooth at first and then drop down onto it after it turned a little further, creating a loud click and rattling the chain around. It was constantly trying to derail.

So, even though I knew it wouldn't work, I decided to move the chainring back to the outside position while leaving the UN-54 BB in just as an experiment. It was basically the same as on the inside, but too far out instead of in. No surprise.

Ultimately, I decided to just put the Sugino BB-3 back in since the chainline was at least closer to correct and I now have a new appreciation for my chainline being almost correct. In fact, it almost seems like the chainline is better now than it was before. Maybe all of that removing and remounting the cranks expanded the holes a bit, so it sits further in now. :D

If you read the thread from the BF mechanics forum, it sounds plausible, especially since it seems like some of them are mechanical engineers. At least one of the posters was saying that it's not about making the spoke thinner, it's about the outer layer of the spoke being made harder through anodizing. Then, when the spoke flexes, the harder oxide layer cracks more easily and, once those cracks are there, they are more easily transferred into the softer, inner portion of the spoke.

quick question, what size seat clamp did you guys buy? thanks.

wait.. doesnt all aluminum have an oxide layer? isnt annodizing just twice as thick? hm.. we are talking such small differences here..

Spokes are made of stainless steel, not aluminum. Also I'm not advocating either view; I was just relaying what I could understand from the discussion in the other thread. ;)

I just got it from IRO with a clamp, but I know that the size has been posted in this thread at least twice. You could probably find it pretty quickly searching or scanning through the thread.

My build is nearly finished. All I need to do now is tape & varnish the bars....

Still waiting on my wheels. I think, I may actually have some next week.

The wheels are now finished, but I didn't get the tires I wanted. Anyway, got her built and here are the results.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1.../IMG_0793t.jpg
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1.../IMG_0799t.jpg
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1.../IMG_0800t.jpg
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1.../IMG_0803t.jpg
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1.../IMG_0805t.jpg

Sorry, I suck at photography and have a crappy digital camera.

Here's mine. Still working out the handlebar choices, thus the badly wrapped bar. Probably not final version but then again it never is. It originally came with a mismatched frame/fork (fork was 1", frame was 1 1/8") but I kept the frame, added reducers and swapped in a 1" carbon fork I had lying around.

Rides nice but I think I will swap the bars out for some sort of drops. Tried a pair of the Major Taylors from SOMA but that was just uncomfortable. Tried flat bars but that last about 10 miles before I was dying for some other hand position. Just going to put some drops in next.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1183/...9ec6fb5cb9.jpg