Frustrating day, all self-inflicted.
1. Went to fit the chain. Quicklink supplied with the chain fell off into the gravel on the drive and I spent 20 fruitless minutes looking for it. Gone. So I tried to fit another quicklink I had in the toolbox. I must have spent an hour battling with it, getting sore fingers and a scratch in the frame in the process. In the end I realised it was never going to fit, checked the box and ... the chain is a single speed chain, bought when I was thinking of building the bike as a SS/fixie. It’s a 3/32nd chain, but the side plates are too big to allow the quicklink to engage. So off to my LBS for a new 5/6/7 speed chain. Took half a dozen links out and it now fits fine. A ten minute job just took me about 2 hours, and i was freezing.
2. Fitted the great shifter and attached the cable. Found a length of gear outer for the loop round the rear axle. Put the inner cable through it so I could measure the length of outer required with the outer secured in the chainstay braze-on. Cut the outer to length, thinking ‘these cutters are struggling more than usual’. Then remembered that the inner cable was still in the outer. Well, some of it.
At this point, I realised I was tired and cold, and it was 4 pm, so I packed everything away and had a bath.
Tomorrow, new gear cable (will probably buy two just in case) and get the derailleur working. Then test ride, final tweaks and fit the bar tape. Knowing me, I’ll probably fit it sticky side out, or something. Then we’ll have a bike. Perhaps.