Wrestling the Angel

I never told you about New York!

I don't have time right now for the full story, but basically, it was awesome again, we biked, I got my PR10 frame.

I took the components off Miss P on Wednesday and started putting them on Mr P at Velocipede. I already told you about this part. Thursday I borrowed a chain tool from Penny at Light Street (whoa!) and spent a large amount of the evening remaking the chain from extra bits I had in the parts box. Realized the seatpost would work with the shim from Miss P and put the seat together. Chainline lined right up. Then the stem.

I wrestled with this stem the whole weekend. I didn't get it all the way on the bars until Sunday afternoon. Miss P's 26.0 moustache bars won't fit in the Italian stem I got, so I chopped the Nishiki's old drops and tried to force them onto the stem. No dice. Many curls of aluminum fell to the floor. I greased a little, tried again. A little better. But still stuck. I left, came back, tried again. A little further onto the middle shim part but so much grinding ensued I gave up and got out the sandpaper to sand down the now ragged interior of the stem clamp and the bar. Liberal application of fancy grease (all I got). Success - almost! I am wrenching and pushing and turning and goddarn it I should have greased the stem AND the bar, but f-it there's no turning back now, I only have an inch to go before it's centered. Back and forth twisting is replaced by the 360 degree rotation and the bar slides through like it's threading itself onto the stem, finally, and I line it up nice and clean the grease off and tape it up with crazy strapping tape and electrical tape because I am so anxious to ride the damn thing after all this. I did not go climbing this week but I got a workout quand-meme, lemme tell ya. My biceps and forearms were bulging.

The brakes are still non-functional as the levers are being sent to Pops, along with the old Nitto stem and my 26.0 moustache bars (I ordered 25.6's off Ebay). Course that means I have to undo my tape job and take the bullhorns off again but perhaps I will just leave it like this for a bit and ride brakeless around the hood. It is October after all, the season of scariness. I need a new saddle and I will be all set, me and Mr. P, united at last. I might call her the Angel though, as it has been a definite wrestling match between the two of us, right from the beginning. A lost auction, a second chance, a missed pick-up, a second trip to Flushing, the carrying down on the bus, the bb wrenching, the headset problems (still loose), the chain, the stem, she's my angel but she's a fighter.