Project Australia

So I'm going to be staying in Melbourne for a while, and I need a new bike, so I thought I'd go for something with an Australian flavour, as most of my bikes back home are made by English frame builders. At the moment, I'm waiting for this frame to arrive (sellers photos):

I'm also building a new set of wheels at the moment: 32h open pro CD rims onto dura ace 7600 hubs.

I'll update this thread with photos as the build progresses. Hoping to get it to a rideable state by the end of next week, if everything goes to plan.

Looks like you have a great frame as a project starter. I am also building up a set of 90s open pro rims to go on my Fausto Coppi frame.

Bit of progress: Hubs arrived at work today, so I managed to get the wheels built up:

32h Oped Pro CD rims. De-stickered before building.

32h 7600 hubs.

DT Swiss Champion spokes.

16t Durace ace sprocket and lockring.

Wheelbuilding lessons for my girlfriend. She laced the whole rear wheel perfectly on the first go, without any help. A natural!

This is going to be ace

Cool cat :)

The frame was at work, when I arrived there today, which was a nice surprise. Just stuck the wheels and bars in for now, so I could hang it up properly. Ordered a Sugino Mighty crankset, and a Thomson inline, silver seatpost today. The tyres are just a temporary pair of GP4000s that were kicking about the workshop. I'm going to get some veloflex masters, probably. Proper photos when it's finished!

A shit photo, and it's still not finished, but I put some temporary bits on, so i could ride it home. It's just an old 105 crankset on there for now, with a ring from the parts bin, a temporary BMX chain, and a pair of SPDs from the hire bikes at work. The seatpost and saddle are just temporary too. I've got some time atacs and a silver Thomson inline on the way, and want to find an old flite. Probably going to go for a 170mm 7710 crank and an izumi chain to finish the drivetrain.

Proper photos when it's properly finished. I think I might need a slightly shorter stem too. maybe a 100mm.

Although it's not properly finished, I couldn't sleep, so I decided to go out for a little ride, and took a couple of photos.

Some more on flickr.

Looking good. I'm such a sucker for red frames with white decals.

^Oh boy I do agree.

sweet build!

Rims/hubs suit it perfectly. Some steels need skinny silver rims, but this one seems to sit really well on the V/aero profile rims (like campag omega?)

Fully up and running now. The SMP isn't the normal saddle, and the mountain bike pedals aren't staying, but I've been spending a lot of time in the saddle recently, so borrowed the comfy one from my road bike, and my only decent shoes at the moment are mtb ones.
Found a set of Sugino mighty cranks for it in the end, and I'm running a 51t chainring with a 17(street), 16 or 15(track) on the back.
Rode to the beach today:

Hillman's are lovely, that one in particular...nice build.

Thanks. It's not a hillman though. It's a Hillbrick.

Great build and good to see pictures of Melburn to remind me why I'm moving there soon.
I was thinking I need to build a beach bike for the occasion. :)

what are those weird lamp things in the back of the last pic?

51 x 17 ...pushing the big ring brake less?

nice build.

what are those weird lamp things in the back of the last pic?

Those are bells. THey play creepy music sometimes.

51 x 17 ...pushing the big ring brake less?

nice build.

Thanks. I've actually been rolling around on 51:15 for the last few days, because I've not had the chance to change the sprocket. Probably stupid/not good for the knees. I'll get it swapped back asap though.

Nice, I've got a very similar Hillbrick pista in blue. You don't see many on the interwebs.

I was told mine was Columbus SLX, no stickers though. What is yours?

Here's a pic:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_m20n0cIa3x1qer692o1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI6WLSGT7Y3ET7ADQ&Expires=1333731344&Signature=G22jUfeIjazli1en3c1u1TWGfas%3D

Very nice. Looks like a very similar frame. Mine is Columbus Gara, so a pretty basic tubeset.
Is yours in the UK? Do you know how it ended up there?

saw this on foa, nice build

Very nice. Looks like a very similar frame. Mine is Columbus Gara, so a pretty basic tubeset.
Is yours in the UK? Do you know how it ended up there?

Yep, it is in the UK. Apparently belonged to a Sydney track cyclist, then it was brought over by a forumger to slave around the east end. I then bought it and used it on the track again.