Construction anxiety

There were, of course, anxious moments.

The frame has inside the frame cable routing for the rear brake cable. This was my first bike build so obviously I had never done this before but even more troubling, I had never even seen this up close. I drove out to Hudson to the one place I was certain would have built up Look bicycles on the shop floor. They didn't have my exact frame but they did have a couple of frames with inside the frame cable routing. I looked. It looked simple enough and when I asked about it the mechanic on duty said it was simple enough . . . But this was going to be an anxious moment.

When the brake bolt didn't reach there was anxiety. There are only so many times you can take the part out, look it over, push it back in and this time press really hard on the two parts as you try to get them to mate up. After a while it just clearly isn't going to work. But, even when I reached this moment I wasn't quite ready to panic.

The frame does not have a seat post binder as is usual for most bikes. It has an built in expander that tightens and holds the post. To expand the expander you tighten a proprietary Look only seat post bolt in a port at the top of the seat tube. I bought my frame at a warehouse sale and the expander bolt was missing. I had to have the shop where I picked up the frame order the bolt for me. It came, I plugged it in, it worked easily and really well.

So then the brake didn't seem to work. I knew I was dealing with a major frame manufacturer (Look) and a major parts manufacturer (Mavic). I figured that there might well be a special part that I didn't know about. I went to the best bicycle shop I know of (County Cycles) and asked. I was confident they would help me.

I just didn't know how very easy it would be. Scott never batted a eye, he just went in the back room and got the two other lengths for the bolt in question.

There were a couple of other anxious moments to come.