No Ruddy Idea But Here Goes.

[Serge]

OK, dinner's taking longer than I thought so, fuelled only by cheap alcohol, I couldn't resist opening my shiny new packages.

First the wheels:

Ooh, exciting package!

Then I realised, by some sort of cosmic karma (or more likely the fact that they were fairly cheap), I'd bought the exact same wheels that were fitted to the original GT:

Now, I promised myself at the start of this project that I would be completely honest with myself and you masochistic thread watchers out there. So, when I opened this next package and saw this:

My first thought was "How the hell am I going to hide those big blue cables?".

It was a brief thought but, in the interests of full disclosure, I thought it only fair to share.

Now my favourite so far:

I think the "Cheery Orange" is going to seriously complement the "Grumpy Blue".

 

[Serge]

Going through my pages and pages of order confirmations, it appears that it's the mudguards that wouldn't fit through the letterbox. Didn't try hard enough in my opinion.

 

[tom73]

loving this thread love the idea of building a bike. Need to read up and work out a few things 1st. like you am not sure how to start. So good luck @Serge and am sure we will both learn a thing or too along the way.

 

[Serge]

loving this thread love the idea of building a bike. Need to read up and work out a few things 1st. like you am not sure how to start. So good luck @Serge and am sure we will both learn a thing or too along the way.

Worst case scenario, I balls things up completely and you learn from my mistakes.

Quite unexpectedly, I feel quite confident about the impending build. I think it's helping immensely knowing I have all you guys and guyesses behind me.

It's a good job I'm feeling confident too, stay tuned for tomorrow's final big reveal!

 

[Serge]

** apologies. Apostrophe seems to have disappeard from my keyboard!

Thanks for the answer! Dont worry, I know how exciting it is to be putting my own bike together!

My follow on question is when putting the bike back together. are you reusing the old headset or getting a new one?

TBH fooling around with the headset and the fear of damaging the sensitive threads around the Bottom bracket are what have turned me off powder coating my beast. Plus, the fact that it looks like a piece of crap makes it less attractive to potential thieves.

The couple of times Ive made enquiries with powder coating businesses theyve been vague at best,and when I asked in a couple of local bike shops about getting the frame prepped for coating, their advice has been universally to buy a new bike.

And youre lucky with the timing. Anyone I approached, I was looking at 2-4 weeks timeframe.

Good luck! And well done on starting this thread. Your enthusiasm is shining through!

Just a small follow up on this. The main reason I wanted the frame shotblasting and powder coating was the amount of rust spots I found on the frame. I just wanted to make sure the frame was protected as much as possible.

 

[Serge]

Time to sleep, perchance to dream of frayed cable ends and cross threaded bottom brackets.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

My first thought was "How the hell am I going to hide those big blue cables?".

That made me laugh aloud!
The power coating thing: I'm sure to have read (on here, perhaps) that you're supposed to stuff the open holes in the frame and forks with old cloths to protect the threads.
Maybe the power coating person will do that.

 

[Nigelnightmare]

Powder coaters usually have "bungs" of various sizes for threaded and unthreaded holes and the OP did mention that they (the powder coaters) had done a few before.

Good luck with the build.

 

[si_c]

Looking good @Serge, I did much the same as you are, built myself a bike to learn how everything works and fits together. Was a fantastic (if somewhat expensive) learning experience. I bought an old Peugeot frame from ebay for about £80, and then bought lots and lots of bits on ebay and various other sites.

Total build cost for my £80 (as far as my wife is concerned) was just shy of £700, but I spent another £200 or so replacing some of the stock components with modern replacements over the following year. And that's not including the cost of the tools I needed to buy to fit everything together.

 

[Vantage]

Watching this thread with interest as I love the enthusiasm and humour
Good luck!

 

[Serge]

Looking good @Serge, I did much the same as you are, built myself a bike to learn how everything works and fits together. Was a fantastic (if somewhat expensive) learning experience. I bought an old Peugeot frame from ebay for about £80, and then bought lots and lots of bits on ebay and various other sites.

Total build cost for my £80 (as far as my wife is concerned) was just shy of £700, but I spent another £200 or so replacing some of the stock components with modern replacements over the following year. And that's not including the cost of the tools I needed to buy to fit everything together.

Tell me about it! My spend's already passed the £500 mark, like you including the tools.

 

[Threevok]

I don't count new tools in the cost of a new build

Besides, I will need them for the next build

 

[raleighnut]

I've built most of my bikes from frames I've either bought or been given, costs have varied between about £350 to £1,000 but I do have a penchant for fitting Brooks saddles to mine (6 so far)

 

[Salar]

I've bought quite a few retro bits from Bankrupt Bike Parts over the years.

My last purchase was original retro gripshift shifters for my folder.

 

[Serge]

I've bought quite a few retro bits from Bankrupt Bike Parts over the years.

My last purchase was original retro gripshift shifters for my folder.

I've bought the new headset bearings from them.