Rest Week - Bike Building Time

Original photo by Clayton Plummer

This week was an off week for me, well, off weekend anyway.  I did workout all five days of the work week.  I just wasn't into surfing despite there being actual surf to be had.  I also didn't feel like hiking.  So, I spent my energy on building two of the three bicycles I have in various pieces in my garage.

I started with my Santa Cruz Stigmata 'cross frame.  I used my local bike shop, Richard's Cyclery, to help me with the Chris King Pretty and Strong headset installation.  Thankfully, the Easton EC90X fork I used for this build already had the Chris King crown installed on it.  For the handlebars, stem, and seat post I used Ritchey Logic WCS pieces all in black.  The drive train is all of the Shimano Ultegra stuff I had except the cranks are FSA Energy with 53/39 chainrings.  It's not geared for actual cyclocross at the moment.  The wheelset is a Chris King Pretty and Strong hubset with Mavic Reflex tubular rims that I bought from my friend at Built To Last Wheels.  It is a light bike and it looks good.  I think I might race it a few times before I actually ship it off to my mom's house for good.

Original photo by Clayton Plummer

The second bike I built this weekend is my Specialized Allez frameset from 2011.  It's a nice frame, made out of E5 aluminum, which was the state of the art stuff back at the beginning of the millennium.  It has a carbon fork with a tapered aluminum steer tube.  A Cane Creek tapered headset keeps the fork in line.  I added a couple of Specialized Rib Cage bottle cages in blue to match the frame.  Like the Stigmata, I used a Ritchey Logic WCS stem, handle bar, and seat post.  This time I used Ritchey's wet white color.  Even though you only see a tiny bit of the handle bars once taped it makes my OCD happy to know they all match.  For the drive train I used a SRAM Force groupo that I pieced together this winter/spring.  It's not the new SRAM 22 stuff, but still cool looking.  The wheels are a Powertap Pro hub in the rear and a Chris King R45 hub in silver in the front mated to DT Swiss RR465 rims that I bought from my friend at Built To Last Wheels.  I am looking forward to riding it and getting used to the whole SRAM double tap shifting thing.

Original photo by Clayton Plummer

I have one more bike to build, but that's another blog for another time.

Happy Riding and keep it rubber side down!!
Clayton