Day 2 parts delivery

The next day most of the rest of the things that typify the modern bicycle arrived on my front porch. The boxes in this photo are Campagnolo components, the saddle is a Selle Italia Flite.I chose to build the bicycle with what would generally be referred to as a "full Chorus" build. These are all Chorus parts (blue printing) with the exception of the chain which is Record (red printing). Record is the top of the line component group, Chorus is the second from top. I chose Chorus because Chorus has all of the functionality of Record. The parts design and interior workings are identical (for example, bearings instead of bushings). Record gets a few extra carbon bits and therefore slightly reduced weight to go with a substantially higher price. It does not work any better. The buzz is that Chorus is the thinking man's Record or alternatively that Record is the pretentious man's Chorus. I chose Chorus (while giving myself a self-congratulatory pat on the back).

The large box behind the saddle contains the crankset. I chose the 172.5 crank arm length with the more or less standard 53-39 chain rings. I chose the double front because I very early on determined that the hills in and around the area where I live can all be conquered with the gearing available with these chain rings. I can climb anything I come to around here in a 39x26 and actually I do almost all of my climbing in the 39x23.

Next is the rear derailleur, the mechanism for moving the chain to change the gears on the rear wheel. Next is the cassette or sprockets for the rear wheel. The cassette choice is the 13-26. This features 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 23 and 26 toothed cogs. I ride mostly in the 17, out in the middle of the cassette. I don't sprint much but when I do I usually get only to the 15 or very occasionally the 14. As I said above, I climb in the 21 and 23 with the 26 for the likes of the Myrtle Street hill.

Next over is the front derailleur, the mechanism for moving the chain between the rings on the crankset. The largish twin boxes hold the brake lever/shifter mechanisms and cables for connecting up all of the parts. The smallish box in front holds the bottom bracket.

A note on the saddle, I had been riding a fi'zi:k Plateau. The Selle Italia Flite is highly praised, generally considered to be one of the two or three top saddles available for this kind of riding. I wanted to try it out. I rode it a couple of hundred miles and just never really adapted to it. I found a new titanium rail Plateau on eBay for an excellent price and made the switch back to fi'zi:k. I have since also equipped my Michigan bicycle with the same saddle, albeit with the stainless steel saddle rails.Construction is starting to get a little more serious as I have now moved from the living room of the house down one floor to the TV room. I am not in the basement yet. This photo illustrates completion of one of the major steps in bicycle building, the installation of the bottom bracket, now visible in its place in the frame. The bottom bracket is THE moving part of a bicycle, the pivot around which the cranks turn. Because you don't want any screw ups here the procedure is to thoroughly clean and face the threads in the frame. Some recommend a light coat of grease but I chose to follow the instructions that came in the box with the part which counseled that no grease was required. It does take a fairly high level of torque and this is where the large scale torque wrench came into play. The bottom bracket has a unique configuration of grooves and splines and there is a special bottom bracket installation tool (the blue package). I had to go to Sears for a large enough socket (1 inch, next to the bottom bracket tool) to fit the tool and the torque wrench.

The bottom bracket tool is not a single use tool as it is also used to tighten down the cassette onto the rear wheel (same groove and spline pattern). You don't have to measure torque on this application, you just want it good and tight. I had messed with cassettes a few times previously and I already had the large box end wrench for this task.

Yesterday in Sedan FC Nantes and CS Sedan played 90 minutes of scoreless football and followed it up with 30 minutes of scoreless overtime football. The game was then settled by a penalty kick shootout. Sedan prevailed 4-2, eliminating FC Nantes from le Coupe de France. As noted by their manager after the result was final, FC Nantes is now free to concentrate on the item of overriding importance, the championship of Ligue 2 and return to Ligue 1.