Starting the build

Like a big kid at Christmas I couldn't wait to get assembling things.  First thing was to put the frame on the assembly stand and put together the saddle clamp as there were a number of small, easily lost parts on that.  You can't really see it well in the photo but the clamp features a pair of slithers of titantium across the tops of the rails with a pair of bolts running through a shaft in the seat-post up into them.  It's a fiddly thing to get on but once it is there the adjustment it allows is rather good.  With the saddle resting loosely in place it starts to look like a bike.

 

Next up was the rear brakes.  The way these are done on this frame is with bosses into which the shafts screw.  On one side I simply nipped up the shaft but on the other there was clearly an obstruction as it was stopping some 4mm from "home".  Nothing serious, just a bit of muck in the threads so out came an M10 tap and I cleaned up the thread of the boss before screwing it in home.  So here it is, complete with protective plastic hose.  The threads into the shaft also got a clean-up with a tap as inevitably the anodising process leaves some residue in the threads and better to clean it out with a tap than have it gum up the bolt and risk damaging the thread.