Brain-Stew's birthday bike

So...
It all started when I came back to my flat one fateful day nearly a year ago only to find my beloved bright orange Brian Rourke gone. Vanished in a puff of smoke never to be seen or heard of again.

With little option, I've been riding around on a fairly knackered out old Dolan CX, which gets from A to B, but is nowhere near as fun to ride around the city on as a fixed wheel. A new project was started.

After a bit of perusal, and after floating the idea of 'yet another' bike past my amazing girlfriend, I asked for all of my birthday presents for my 27th birthday to be in cheque form - and this would form my budget for the new build. Hence Brain-Stew's birthday bike.

So far, so good. Using the forum I've managed to secure a wheel set, frame, stem/bars, a crankset and a saddle. Progress has been assembled as best I can at the moment and is looking a little like this:
http://instagram.com/p/O9yB7Zoztx/
Chuffed to see it finally coming together - can't wait to buy up some more bits and finally get something rideable again.

Would love to hear your thoughts/comments/suggestions. And if you've got something for sale that you think would set this off then do drop me a line...
Trying to keep it campag, cos that's what I like

I think it's looking great so far ! Love the wheelset, what are they ?

I think it's looking great so far ! Love the wheelset, what are they ?

Cheers, keeping me busy on the shopping front, certainly.

The front is a Rigida rim on a miche hub, rear an unknown rim/hub flip-flop - both from the forum

And this morning (instead of doing any useful work), I've bought some brakes, brake levers, rim tape, cables and bar tape, as well as dibs-ing some pedals and a seatpost

So nearly there then...total spend (incl all of the above) is £320 which isn't too bad I think

A quick update:

This bike has been cobbled together almost exclusively from the forum (donation on its way) and it's been a pleasure to actually meet some of the people ON HERE, while I've been scurrying around London on my bike, collecting a myriad of parts and carrying them back in time-old fashion - while making a little time for some good ol' BTOTB.

In no particular order, these are the folks who have added something to my bike
sandeepr007 – frame
numicc – saddle
plexarice – front wheel
braker – rear wheel and stem/bars
Hilly Ben – chainset
Amey – pedals
Diamond Supercool - brakes

Not met but special thanks:
JonathanRankin – seatpost
Apollo – washer for brakes
JontyBottomley – didn't buy your levers in the end, but ta anyway

After a weekend of riding, drinking and tinkering, this is the progress to date:

It's nearly ridable, just a couple of things to do:

1. Fit seatpost and saddle when they arrive
   
2. Fit washer to front brake so it doesn't wobble around like a mofo
   
3. Remove freewheel
   
4. Decide if I actually like 53x19 (currently a ratio of convenience, not choice)
   
5. Shim the stem/bar interface, and brake levers to make sure they're nice and tight
   

6. Re-wrap bars so that the fancy Planet-X 'contrast' tape that I bought is actually working for its money
   (This stuff : )

7. Work out total budget, and underspend. Donate underspend to the forum

So yesterday I spent a good 45 minutes wrapping and re-wrapping the bars with the striped tape. Perhaps it's something to do with my lack of patience, but I honestly can't fathom the time it must take to get some of the wraps you see looking quite so plush. I'm reasonably happy, but found it impossible to get the stripes even around the bend of the drops without creating unsightly lumps/gaps in the tape:

However, with the bike in a rideable state, I couldn't resist taking it for a night test spin, borrowing the post and saddle from my road bike:

A few thoughts:

1. The drive-train and chainline are smoooooooth. This is probably a combination of new parts and luck, as I hadn't put much thought into the chainline except having a quick look for which side of the spider to mount the chainring

2. Riding fixed is very fun, even more fun when you haven't done so for a few months. However the "don't stop pedalling" mentality clearly doesn't linger long after you start full time on freewheel equiped bikes - hence a few "kick up the arse" moments as my legs continued their momentum

3. I'm pretty sure the stem I have bought is too long - the position feels a tad stretched out and the steering a bit on the wobbly side. Would be good to get this sorted as I've got a couple of centuries lined up...Annoyingly, changing a quill stem means undoing all my work on the bartape

4. 53x17 seems like a surprisingly nice gear to ride around on. Wasn't expecting that

So I have a couple of questions/requests:

1. What do you think about the bartape/paint-job combination. I'm conflicted as I like the stripe in the tape, but not sure the blue goes with the celeste-green of the frame

2. Does anyone have a shorter (preferably 'oyster' type) quill stem they'd let me buy? I think this one is 120mm, but I think I'd need around 90mm

3. Any opinions on the bike as a whole? It's not one for the vintage brigade, but nor is it a HHSB. My intention is to use it for my commute and long-distance winter riding so I think it's fairly appropriate (obviously except for the white bar-tape, but I'm a Tart at heart)

4. Anyone got some nice silver full mudguards I could have?

It looked loads better with the plain white bartape!

I prefer the plain white as well. I suppose if you wanted a tarty colour match, celeste is a standard colour but I don't know what the options are. I'd personally stick with white and just get something that cleans up nicely, like Fizik Microtex (is that what you had on there before?) or even good old Bike Ribbon (like what I've got). Nice old-school vinyl finish.

I like your cranks! Will it have a silver seatpost and a white saddle?

I agree with you both - just disinclined to undo all that work on the stripey tape!

That said, if I'm going to change the stem then I might as well...

The white tape from before was the same tape, just wrapped the other way up so that the blue stripe was hidden so I'll probably re-wrap like that. Either that or get the whole thing powder-coated in blue to match the tape (this might be a case of the tail wagging the dog)

And yes, there will be a shiny silver seatpost when it arrives in the post - although the saddle is black cos that's what I approve of (I know that there's an argument that the carpet should match the drapes - but then again there are black hoods which need matching with something)

Cranks are Campag Chorus - i love 'em too :)

Tbh I'd be happy with black saddle as well, black saddle/white bars is a classic combo in itself especially with black hoods.