Project Funky Rhubarb* begins

I decided, in a moment of ambition, that I was going to build myself a new bike. I have an old bike with perfectly good stuff on, but the bike is just too small for me. I know I have been riding this bike for a few years now and you'd've thought I would have twigged that by now, but I didn't - but once I got it in my head that was it - I had to have a new bike.
However, there's nothing really wrong with the old one so I couldn't justify buying a new one.
I figured building my own would be a good way to learn about bike mechanicals and it'd be something cool to do. Like I said, ambitious...

Anyway, I found 'the frame' on Pinkbike.com and within 3 days of buying it, it arrived all bubblewrapped. You wouldn't believe how giddy I was.
This is what I got (I put my new forks in to show how the white and red forks didn't go and to justify therefore having it resprayed/powdercoated - more on that later):



It was a very pretty paint job, but it didn't go with the forks and, in honesty, I wanted a red bike!

I suspect the seller left the cranks and bottom bracket and the headset cups fitted because he couldn't get them off, because they took some elbow grease (and my 3rd ever proper bike tool - my shiny Park Tool crank remover) and creative use of a socket set extension and hammer to get them all off, but I did it. This gave me some confidence that actually I wasn't as inept as I feared. Woohoo!

I knew the frame had to be red and, after much research, I decided to get it powdercoated a nice shade of blood red, to go with the fork decals. Yes, I AM that girlie!!
I actually took Friday afternoon off work so I could take it to be done. I took it to a small company in Sheffield and was quite relieved to see them stripping a Cannondale frame as I went in. And even more flattered when the owner asked whether I was building it myself and was really impressed when I said yes. :-) I mentioned that the bottom bracket shell and all the other bolt hole MUST be masked well, that there must be no overspray on any of those bits.
J collected it on Thursday for me - I was 200 miles away at head office. Typical!! They sent me a photo and even in the bad lighting I could see red stuff in the BB shell!! And when I say red - it looked kind of salmon pink. Oh dear. I was dreading what I was going to get home to. :-S

I got home later that day and the frame DID look pink and it DID have overspray on the bottom bracket threads. Oh god. That threw me - how on earth was I, the mechanical numpty, going to deal with that. I decided it was going to have to go to the bike shop to have the threads retapped.




Funky Rhubarb. What am I going to do with a rhubarb coloured bike with fouled up bottom bracket threads??

So, what could I do until I could get to the bike shop to get them done? Refit the headset cups and the various clips and bolts that I took off. That took an entire lunch hour of breezeblocks, blocks of wood and my trusty hammer, but I did it. Again, a small victory and I was really relieved to see that, with a few black bits on the frame and the forks just pushed through and held in place with a temporary stem and my old wheels in it, it looked less pinky/more brick red. I could deal with that. Not quite my lovely blood red, but definitely better. And it was starting to look like a bike now too:

So, now it was time to deal with that overspray...
With the advice (sometimes conflicting) and calm reassurance from some of my friends, and mechanical support in the shape of J's brothers dremel, I attacked the threads gently and slowly but slowly, they started to come shiny and clean. J stayed to help for a little while, but I was fretting and bitching and it was safer in the end for him to retire to bed with his book. Ooops. Sorry Julian...

Anyway, another minor victory there meant I could fit the bottom bracket, the cranks and my SPD pedals.
I bought a new seat stem and borrowed J's old saddle, just for photographic purposes, and this is where I was by Saturday afternoon:

I am still not brave enough to cut the steerer tube but it will need doing at some point, but I can do it, I am not as useless as I first thought I was.

Next?
Well, I have ordered a set of white Felt decals and a set of black handlebars, so waiting for those to arrive, and the chap in the bike shop appears to have donated a gear cable guide so I need to pick up some gear cables, a chain and some handlebar grips and then I can start transferring the gubbins from my old bike. How very exciting!!
And after that, when it is all ready to ride, I will get some white Team Bimbo stickers made and the transformation will be complete.

Sorry if this was a bit of a long and boring read but I am just documenting the build process.

* The name Funky Rhubarb comes from my lovely friend Heather who, when she came out with that name, cheered me up no end and actually made me feel loads better about the colour, even if it wasn't quite what I expected.