A Good Cycling Day... and Lots More Stuff for Sale

Today was one of my best all-round days as a cyclist. I woke up early and rode with Noah (of Velocolour) to the start of Mike Barry's (of Mariposa) weekly ride to Goodwood. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day, and Noah and I had a good time challenging one another for the sprints for town signs. "Shop-partner" Olivier (of Cyclops) was along as well, and discovered that for fast group rides a big ring bigger than 46 can be very useful! (I was on my Santé-equipped Marinoni, which acquitted itself well among the carbon 10-speed bikes in the company.) With the ride to the start point and back, Noah and I had a 160km day.

After finishing the ride I headed in to the shop and finished my top tube miter. The TT miter is especially tricky since both ends are mitered, and since not only do the angles need to be just right, but the distance between them also needs to be spot on. I forgot to bring my camera in, but the above photo shows some of the leftovers of the process. The two short lengths of tubing are what I cut away from the ends of the TT. The butts on my Reynolds .8/.5/.8 top tube are even on both ends, so I cut off roughly the same from each side. The green tape is there to guide my rough cuts with the hacksaw—I'm still awful with a hacksaw. The v-shaped piece is a rough cut into the deep end of the miter. The white sheet is a printout from TubeNotcher+ that I followed with my file. I cut the printout along the miter line, stuck it on the tube, and traced the curve with a Sharpie. It's a good system. The two miters on the top tube appear to have been at the right angles, and well-spaced; the TT slid right in to the fixture. Or seemed to. We'll see how it all works once all the miters are finished.

My frame is really coming along now. I just need to miter the down tube at the bottom bracket shell (an easy miter) and I can start brazing.

I'm also selling lots of stuff in a continuing effort to finance all this framebuilding. I'm selling no fewer than 27 items on eBay. Follow this link to see 10-speed Chorus stuff, a Schmidt SON28 hub, lots of brake levers, some Campagnolo Triomphe stuff, some chainrings, some white World-Champion-striped SIDI shoes, etc., etc.

On Toronto Craigslist I've also listed my Gardin city bike, pictured at right. I put a tremendous amount of time and effort into this bike, and learned a lot from the process. But I don't ride it very much. As much as I like city bikes with swept-back bars, I prefer riding bikes with drop bars, and I find I rarely carry very heavy loads. In any case, I'm asking $1000 for it. If I can't sell it complete (which would be a shame!) I'll begin parting it out in a month or so. (Come to think of it, I could put those MA40 rims, Belleri bars, and Stronglight cranks to good use... Hmm!)

More updates soon!