Frozen Shed Session

Gina had a NH Humane Society Holiday party tonight so I figured I would freeze my ass of in the shed and get started on yet another massive parts swap / build as well as do a bit of maintenance on the good 'ole nothin but troubles.

I'm not sure why I continue to bother with those skis.  Edges are burred to complete worthlessness but I suppose every little bit helps...cant get any worse I guess.  They will hopefully be phased out a bit soon anyway.  Once everything fills in and those damn bindings I got a deal on actually ship I will have some fresh fatties to break down to nothingness.

The real action of the evening came with my latest parts swap and bike birth / rebirth.  I can't seem to build a bike and just leave it.  At least some of my bikes anyway.  I was very pleased with my monster cross bike, I thought it was a good build and it performed well at the NH100 last year but when it came down to it it was just too damn heavy.  Sure technically it could do anything / go anywhere but it required so much more energy to do it that it just wasn't really working for me.  I want to commute more next year and my commute is not an easy route and if I want to really get into it a bit more I will need something a bit lighter and more suited to that task, plus a light tourer might allow me to more easily dabble in cross next year? hmmmm

Soooo I scored yet another cheapo Nashbar frame (touring variety this time around) and I am cannibalizing most of the parts from the monster for use with the light tourer and using spare parts to turn the monster into a burly winter SS since my old ice bike has since devolved into parts.  Seemed a decent compromise and the additional investment needed to make it happen is going to come in very low so it made sense.

 so much for the monster

I felt bad stripping the monster down, but I am excited about the two bikes that will emerge from this process.  I had hoped to make it a bit farther this evening but my hands were starting to get pretty cold and working with cold metal tools/frames wasn't helping.  I ran into a few incompatibilities and parts that I thought I had but didn't so I had to table a few things until later.  I should be able to get the burly winter SS back online with just a few more headset spacers.  I thought I had more than I did and I came up about 10mm or so short.  Once I get the spacers I can get the fork mounted again, finish the cockpit and I'll be good to go.

 as far as I could get tonight

Drive train is finished at least.  Running 32-20.  And yes Shine, the zipties are back.  I'll be running my old Thomson stem from the Kona as well as those carbon bars.  Should end up looking pretty sweet and working pretty well as both a decent winter bike and a poor weather / loaner / backup SS.

I also started throwing parts on to the touring frame.  Cranks, pedals, derailleur, seat post, saddle, headset.  Some from the monster some from the parts bin.  Unfortunately the front derailleur from the monster has a clamp diameter that is too small for this frame so I'll have to get a new one.  I still need to buy a fork at some point as well as some rim tape for the wheelset I plan on using.  I am a little worried that I should have bought the 58cm frame but hopefully I can make the 56cm work.  I always felt a bit stretched out on the monster so I thought I would try sizing down but looking at it on the stand it looks small.  Fingers crossed.

I love me some cheap builds

Once I get the parts needed I will start separate posts for each of these builds as I complete them.  Gonna have to figure out new names for each...