Adventures in Middle Earth, or building a Rivendell

Some progress, although I think I might have the wrong size spindles for the bottom bracket. It's starting to actually look like a bike!

Further progress halted because I have no silver ferrules.

Lovely!

I would peel the rubbers of those hoods back as long as you're not wrapping the bars. Don't want to introduce any creases in those nice things.

They’re a world away from the Teravails and WTBs I’m used to, that’s for sure.

Couldn’t believe how they completely failed to even pretend to seal.

Cheers. Good tip. Half tempted to try and swap them out for another other colour if I can find them.

What's that nice woven thingy around the chainstay and do you need to be mad crafty to do something like this?

But you are mad crafty

It's a leftover from the previous owner - pretty sure it's just a bit of extra bar tape wrapped around the stay and over a stay protector.

I'm going to leave it for now, but if I have some bar tape leftover swap it so it matches with the new tape.

I am not mad crafty, so... here's hoping it's nothing fancier.

It is left over cloth tape, I think, finished with twine?

I have tried it before on a couple of bikes and found it soooo hard to get the spacing even due to the way the diameter of the chain stay changes and the lack of space between the stays. I regard myself as pretty good with bar tape, too. One of those things that looks straightforward but is anything but. Fun to try though :)

Edit: bike looks fantastic by the way. Those ritchey bars are really underrated.

Reading this, and knowing how bad I am with that sort of thing, maybe I'll leave it how it is🤔

Thanks! Excited to try them. I love drop bars, but have been looking for something shallower and more comfortable to use as I don't spend that much time in the drops.

Excellent handlebars, love em.

Adventures in boutique hardware sourcing.. I found a retailer who offered to call Paul Comp about special ordering a non-recessed version of the Racer. Turns out the Racer is being entirely discontinued so no more orders. I don't know if they plan to replace it with something new or just keep only the Medium version (the Racer page on the PC website now redirects to the M version, but that could just be SEO hacks). Anyway, I snapped up a recessed mount Racer that the retailer had in stock still, so at least I have something decent with the right reach. Maybe just covid supply line shenanigans, who knows. /hijack

Looks like they have been discontinued, not even on the brakes homepage of PC site, maybe I should increase the price of mine!?!

Damn. I'd sort of half hoped to switch them for the polished ones at some distant future point when I'd forgotten the original cost.

Ah well. Will just have to learn to love them.

Spent a couple of hours faffing around with rear derailleur and front mudguard last night. Slowly making progress, but the idea of drilling holes is not something I am looking forward to.

Just get them polished up!

Do tell me more... How would one go about doing that?

Lovely looking build. Right up my alley.

Does the frame allow for internal dynamo light wiring?

Thanks! Slowly getting there.

No, internal routing is very much not a Riv thing. Far too modern and fiddly.

I'll wind it round the fork, out on the rack (once fitted) for the front light and along the top tube the for the rear.

Shimano makes nice Di2 Cable cover stickers which work really well for dynamo wires (along the inside of the fork leg)

Ah thanks. Will have a look.

In short: disassemble everything (other than the center bolt on the back plate as that's "permanently bonded"), apply oven cleaner to strip anodising, rinse cleaner off, get buffing!

There are various tutorials on how to polish intricate bits of metal with varying levels of kit. Throwing money at a professional is also an option.

Hm. Sounds like a bit of a faff. Might consider it in the future.

I've got the mudguards and flaps fitted now, so more reason not to remove bits for now.

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So, so good.

Favourite thread at the moment.

agreed. so good. Gotta pop round and pick up those guards at some point. will pm you.

Cheers both. Really enjoying building it. Can't wait to go for a spin.

Accumulating parts for a somewhat similar build (racer, dynamo routing, silver bits) so following closely :)

Silver bits are the best.

Happy to do a full parts breakdown if there's anything you want to know.