vandeda
05-05-2007, 07:53 PM
It's complete, and I'm really excited about it. The bike was a project for a kid in my youth group who's a speed skater and needed a bike for training purposes. Plus she really wanted to get a road bike after doing the Tour de Cure charity ride last year. Her parents contacted me to ask questions about bikes because they don't really know anything. All they knew was their price range was $600-900. It sounded like a fun project to me and the ability to take advantage of the poor resale value of bikes. Only problem in my eyes was they contacted me only about 1 month before her birthday, which is this Sunday.
So after about a week, I found a group for $300 in really good shape including wheels, stem, bars, seatpost, etc. Everything but the pedals, and Campy which is all she used at this point. I got Speedplay Frogs for nothing from a fellow biker at work who graciously donated them!!! This was before I knew what size frame to get, but I figured, good price on parts so I'll buy them, and if I don't need them, well I'll just re-sell. So after finding the parts, I did much consultation with Smiley, and he demonstrated amazing patience with me. His initial hunch was a 54s Fierte would work, and determined that his hunch was right after seeing some pictures of Petra on a bike.
When Smiley initially told me Fierte 54s, my initial thoughts were, "great, how can I fit a Serotta into the budget, and how am I going to find a 54s no less ... they don't pop up all that often for sale?"
Amazingly though, as Smiley and I were working on frame size, a 54s showed up in the classifieds, so I sent a message to Jeff asking if he'd be willing to sell it as a frameset if the pending sale didn't work out. He said yeah it would, except that Adam was ahead of me. So .... I messaged Adam asking him if I could butt in line ahead of him because I was trying to set this bike up for a girls 14th birthday. Adam was gracious enough to give me his spot, the sale fell through, and I got a beautiful frameset with but 400 miles that fit into the budget!
So now I had a frame set and parts just 1.5 weeks before Petra's birthday. HOWEVER, as I had expected, a couple of parts would need to be swapped. The stem was too long, I needed a shorter reach handlebar (again, Smiley recommended a Salsa Poco), the front derailleur was the wrong size clamp and I needed some new cables. I put a WTB add in the classifieds. Amazingly Ron had *just* pulled off a 40cm c-c Poco handlebar, Jeff who sold me the frame also had the right size front derailleur, more bikers from work offered up cables, and I find a stem for a good price at Pricepoint. Amazingly, it all arrived by today!
I surely wasn't expecting to both find and then get all the parts I needed within time to have the bike built by this Sunday ... but amazingly, I got everything I needed.
I just finished building the bike up and everything works great. I never thought I'd get a Serotta built up for only $900 (well, a little over since I needed to swap a few parts out), so I'm stoked that it's built and I can't wait to deliver it. It was a fun project, but after doing one this spring and one last spring for other people, I think I'm only doing this once a year ... it's a lot of work.
Anyway, that's the story. A big thanks to all those who had parts available, sold them to me for good prices and got them to me in a timely manner! Because of such, I'll be able to deliver it on Petra's birthday which I didn't think was possible!
Dan
p.s. - yeah, the side picture makes it look like the saddle is tilted way nose up, but it's the shadow. Excuse me for my terrible photography skills.
So after about a week, I found a group for $300 in really good shape including wheels, stem, bars, seatpost, etc. Everything but the pedals, and Campy which is all she used at this point. I got Speedplay Frogs for nothing from a fellow biker at work who graciously donated them!!! This was before I knew what size frame to get, but I figured, good price on parts so I'll buy them, and if I don't need them, well I'll just re-sell. So after finding the parts, I did much consultation with Smiley, and he demonstrated amazing patience with me. His initial hunch was a 54s Fierte would work, and determined that his hunch was right after seeing some pictures of Petra on a bike.
When Smiley initially told me Fierte 54s, my initial thoughts were, "great, how can I fit a Serotta into the budget, and how am I going to find a 54s no less ... they don't pop up all that often for sale?"
Amazingly though, as Smiley and I were working on frame size, a 54s showed up in the classifieds, so I sent a message to Jeff asking if he'd be willing to sell it as a frameset if the pending sale didn't work out. He said yeah it would, except that Adam was ahead of me. So .... I messaged Adam asking him if I could butt in line ahead of him because I was trying to set this bike up for a girls 14th birthday. Adam was gracious enough to give me his spot, the sale fell through, and I got a beautiful frameset with but 400 miles that fit into the budget!
So now I had a frame set and parts just 1.5 weeks before Petra's birthday. HOWEVER, as I had expected, a couple of parts would need to be swapped. The stem was too long, I needed a shorter reach handlebar (again, Smiley recommended a Salsa Poco), the front derailleur was the wrong size clamp and I needed some new cables. I put a WTB add in the classifieds. Amazingly Ron had *just* pulled off a 40cm c-c Poco handlebar, Jeff who sold me the frame also had the right size front derailleur, more bikers from work offered up cables, and I find a stem for a good price at Pricepoint. Amazingly, it all arrived by today!
I surely wasn't expecting to both find and then get all the parts I needed within time to have the bike built by this Sunday ... but amazingly, I got everything I needed.
I just finished building the bike up and everything works great. I never thought I'd get a Serotta built up for only $900 (well, a little over since I needed to swap a few parts out), so I'm stoked that it's built and I can't wait to deliver it. It was a fun project, but after doing one this spring and one last spring for other people, I think I'm only doing this once a year ... it's a lot of work.
Anyway, that's the story. A big thanks to all those who had parts available, sold them to me for good prices and got them to me in a timely manner! Because of such, I'll be able to deliver it on Petra's birthday which I didn't think was possible!
Dan
p.s. - yeah, the side picture makes it look like the saddle is tilted way nose up, but it's the shadow. Excuse me for my terrible photography skills.