It's been a long week

I don't know about you but my bones are aching and my muscles are tense. It's been a busy week of work, bike building and fund raising. I can't believe it was a bank holiday on Monday as it feels like the same length week as usual.

JK's Bianchi after respray

I am delighted to say that after a couple of hiccups I think I have finally completed the bike build. It was all going too smoothly until I reassembled the headset but it just wasn't right. Too much play and I couldn't work out what was wrong. It seems some parts might have been left on the forks and not come back from the respray or it did come back and I chucked them out when I recycled the bike box and bubble wrap at the dump. Whoops! In all honesty I think this was more likely.  If I only I had kept the box until after the build? Que sera sera.. I then went to install the 11-32 Cassette on the rear wheel and it was banging all over the place like a Salvation Army tambourine. Odd! A bit of googling and I realised I need to add spacers to plug the gap of a shimano hub on a Mavic rim with a SRAM cassette. I rifled around in the shed and the cellar, found and tried Shimano cassette spacers as well as campag ones but nope, still too much wobble. Calling in to SigmaSports in Kingston I picked up a Mavic adapter ring. Hey presto the cassette now fitted. Then the rear gears wouldnt run smoothly. I realigned and adjusted until I was blue in the face. I was sure I had done everything I had been told by Downland Cycles on my maintenance course and by reading SRAM's installation instructions. Just to be totally sure I watched as many online u tube clips as I could find. Yep, I had done as I was told. (by the way I dont know who those people are that record and upload videos of the most obscure things but boy I am glad they are dedicated enough to do them). So at this point I had a headset that just didnt feel right and rear gears that wouldnt adjust smoothly. Great..! Time for the experts.

Our local bike shop in Hampton (Birdie Bikes) is a fabulous LBS (Local Bike Shop). The boys in there are so helpful and friendly and never fail to come up trumps to solve problems. I called them up and dropped the bike around leaving it with Adam to see what he thought of it. Just as I got back to the office I found my new wheelset with Shimano hub had arrived and suspecting that the wheel Gary had lent me was not just 'noisy' but a dud, I legged it back to drop off the new rear wheel. How irritated do you think I was to find that in my hurry I had put down the rear wheel and taken the front wheel back to Birdie Bikes. DOH!!!!!!! Anyway Adam soon called to tell me the news. Yes I must have been missing a part from the headset and yes it was the faulty rear wheel. OK some good news some bad. I took the bike home, ordered a new headset from Ribblecycles and then had to sit and wait. Today it arrived and after getting some help to knock out the frame cups I reinstalled the new headset and it now works beautifully. Finally I think I have a working bike to ride on Sunday in the Chiltern 100. Phew that was a close call. All those hills on my Ribble with no front shifter working was not appealing.

What a drama but hopefully it was worth the wait.

So tired, that's it for me for now. Another long day tomorrow but it will start well with a ride on my beautiful revamped Bianchi. :-)