Finally Done!!

No more workin on bikes.....can finally can start riding again!!

Almost done with Katrina's and starting on mine.

Ran into some mishaps while doing the finishing work on the bikes.  Bought the wrong size bottle cage bolts, stem spacers and seat tube bolts.  Luckily though we bought a bunch of stuff we ended up not using.  The brakes and derailluers came with their own cables...we got about $100 after taking those things back. 

A lot of people turn their noses up at performace bike.  That is the place you want to use when building something like this.  You can return stuff much more easily their than anywhere I have seen.

The frames are very close now.  All we have left is the KAT-BIRD decals and an extreme tune up.  Praying it goes smoothly because the Wurstride is coming up and we need to get some time in the saddle with these bikes.

Starting to look like a bike

We still have to finish with the derailleurs but we are very close to having first bike finished.  We had to take a break this weekend because of time constraints.

First snag in the assembly process

I have taken out bottom brackets and headsets before but with the way they do things with the new bikes today everything has to be precise.  That's why I ended up ruining a brand new bottom bracket.  DANG IT!! 

There was basically too much paint and we had to take the frames into a shop so the real tools could come out and hone out the bottom bracket and steerer tube.

Baby steps...BAAaBy steps!

Frames are back from clear coating

Well we learned a lot this week about powder coating clear coat.  It did bake and slightly discolor the 1shot paint which was a possibility we knew.  However they are still green and did not turn brown and that's what we hoped for.  They also now have another layer that is tough as nails which is important for making the bikes last forever.  There are a few spots and imperfections but for the most part they look good and we are sooooo ready to start assembly.

Other options would have been to either pay for an exspensive custom glitter metallic powder coating or possibly to carefully clear coat from a spray can at home.

This is the first pictures from Katrina's phone.

Paint the Lugs

We were both nervous about painting the lugs.  Knowing you're getting close to the end and you don't want to screw something up puts the preasure on.  Plus neither of us have steady hands.

Of course like always.  I tend to jump into things with out reading directions or doing any research.   Painting of the lugs was a little bit of trouble because we did it wrong.  I decided that mixing the paint and metal flakes would be the best way to do things.  I realize now that's wrong.  The paint looked dull and it was very clumpy.  Luckily Sam, model painting expert, from the neighborhood came down and gave us a better idea for doing it.  I wish I had talked to him beforehand.  You can definitely tell the difference between his method (painting heavily and sprinkling metal flakes) and ours.  Smoother and looks better.  The pictures don't do it justice...it looks pimp!!