Comment from the shop

"Yesterday you were taking a hacksaw to a bare frame and today you rode it in..."

Yup. The ancient Real(tm) bottom bracket that i used because it had a totally adjustable chainline and worked with the 180 Suntour XC Pro cranks seized in the frame (technically the splines to remove it broke off). Hacksawed it out. Took 2-3mm off the bottom of the head tube, faced and chased the bottom bracket and it was ready for parts.

stripped the Giant down, dug out the brakes that were on the Croll last (black shimano Low profile LX circa 1994).

And built it right back up. Chain is a bit toasted but rather than use a shimano pin to re-install it i grabbed the 9sp SRAM quick link that saved my bacon that one NBX in maybe '06 - thanks to Corner's Mark G). Used the old Ultegra instead of the D/A rear der off the Giant. and for the first time ever the Croll has STI. WOO. no bar ends on it!

the build went pretty well.

The ride in yesterday actually even better. That bit of head tube removal seems to have it driving differently. When I had it built I asked them to make the head tube 10mm taller but make it 10mm above the headtube. They cut it 10mm longer but biased it, so it always rode kind of funny and slow. It isn't wicked twitchy but it doesn't seem to be as terrible as I remember it. I'll have to bounce back between that and another bike just to see if it is just the pride in getting it put together or a real improvement.

It is smoother. It is flexy as hell but it definitely conveys the buttery ride of steel. Lots of chain rub on the front der under load even with a 46 ring but hey, it ain't so bad.

Bad side is the wheel that I tied and soldered the spokes after putting the new CXP22 on there, well the brake wear indicator track is pretty much gone, as in that rim is going to go soon.

The bars felt a bit stretched but I also am slowly recalling that I never had the saddle all the way back, might have to move that forward and see if it fixes the reach issue. One bolt quill stems are a pain to deal with, and it really is pretty close.

Just wish I'd had them put fender eyelets on the bike or something. There isn't a hole drilled in the seatstay brace, and no chainstay brace or fork crown hole either, I suppose a set of Speedez Hybrid might be in order. Will have to do the double ziptie on the bottom of the rear, the front might not fit through the fork, but it can be trimmed...

maybe it is better to have a broken frame stripped down and hanging than a rideable one. Although until saturday the Croll was not due to that busted and stuck Shell (hacksaw in two places and some hammering - should have done three cuts instead of two, would have meant less pounding).

beat around commuter bike is ready to go... for a total cost of... nothing, yet, fenders and brake pads may make cost a few $, rim's going to take a couple too, but hey... it is all good.

heddwch
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