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@t-4003
It's all built up and we picked it up over the weekend. All in all I am very pleased, more importantly, so is the wife.
I had it built up at my LBS, Vaidas bicycles in Honor Oak. It's a great shop and I really can't recommend them enough. The service you get is great and they always do a really good job at good prices. They are what an LBS should be. Check them out: http://www.vaidasbicycles.com/
There were a few unforeseen problems:
I have spec'd this with Deore parts - it's pretty much a full Deore groupset, but with 105 hubs. Obviously Deore is a MTB groupset, designed to go on a MTB frame with MTB geo. The clamp on part of the front mech, when fitted, only left about 3-4mm between the mech and the tyre, which isn't ideal. To leave a bit more space and avoid anything getting stuck we've fitted a 28c Marathon plus on the back (rather than a 32c), which has solved this problem. No biggie, but it did mean the extra cost of a new tyre that I hadn't budgeted for.
The old rear mudguard broke when I was taking it off her old bike (it had perished and was already cracked), so I had to get a replacement set. I was going to do this in the long run anyway, but was something I hadn't budgeted for right now.
The above clamp on problem also caused a problem when fitting the rear mudguard, as there wasn't really much space between the mech and the tyre. To solve this we've chopped a bit (about 6cm or so) off the end of the guard. This means it isn't attached at the bottom of the chain stays, but it's not really a problem as it is securely attached at the rear bridge and so doesn't rattle around or anything. I've stuck a frame saver between the 'loose' end of the guard and frame anyway, just in case, but it's pretty solid and won't cause any problems. I was a bit concerned about this, but the dude at the shop was confident he could sort it out with no problem, and he has.
Budget wise, I was trying to do everything (excluding paint) for under £550. I had to buy a few things I didn't expect: new rear tyre, mudguards and handlebars so I've just slipped over the budget and it's come in at £565. For the money I think it's a really good, quite unique bike, that is quite close to what we were aiming for (which is quite satisfying and a bit of a relief). The paint looks great, it's not too girly but certainly stands out against most other bikes you see - she seems to like calling it The Unicorn.
I've had a go and I think it rides very well (for a bike that's far too small for me!). We spent yesterday morning riding around Crystal Palace park so she could start to get a feel for the barend shifters and not have to worry about cars etc before riding it to work this morning. I'm pleased to report the commute this morning was ok and I'm sure she'll get used to riding with derailleur gears before too long.
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