When the going gets tough

the tough go on lack of sleep.
So this is it. Really running out of time now, which I knew I would. Thankfully running out of parts to work on as well!
Finished up the rear triangle tonight. Overall it took for-freeking-ever to complete. Might have even taken longer than the front triangle. Spent about an hour and a half just buffing all the tiny little areas and probably 10 hours of sanding. But it turned out great and has a nice sparkle.
Finished the crank, polished it up and installed the chainrings which look awesome. Blend right in with the ridiculousness of it all.
Buffed the rear hub and laced up the wheel.
Installed the chain and derailleurs.
Ran the rest of the shift housing.

So tomorrow I am going to tension the rear wheel at work (nothing like working on your own bike on your last day) and then I have promised myself that I will have the bike completed by tomorrow night (ok except for the brake bleed, I am going to pick up some more DOT 5.1 when I am in town on Monday). I really don't want to have to spend a bunch of time on it Monday when I really need to be cleaning up my disaster of an apartment and getting all my sh!t together for my trip. So that is why it must be finished tomorrow.

Now I am off to bed.




Goodnight!
Benno

It's almost like a half a bike...........

Lets see what is there left to do on the X-Ben.
-finish rear hub
-lace rear wheel
-finish rear brake
-finish crank
-finish rear triangle
-build bike


I guess that doesn't sound so bad. Lets see a guestimated time frame
-2 hours
-1 hour
-3 hours
-2 hours
-2 hours
-4 hours

Soooo maybe only 14 hours of work left. I am still waiting on the cassette actually. It is getting increasingly difficult to find 9 speed Dura Ace cassettes for a reasonable price. Lets hope it arrives tomorrow or monday. If not I will have to get someone to bring it down for me and be sans mountain bike for the time being (which would be a real shame after doing all this work to get it ready).
I don't expect the bike to be any lighter. I've replaced a few bolts and the brakes but other than that I am running the same parts as last year. Maybe it will be around 21.5lbs instead of 22lbs but we will see.

Just finished the front brake, painted the rear rim, and ran some shift housing to see how it will look. Now I am gonna get back to work but thought I would share a pic.

Back to work!

Benoit

I can sleep when I'm dead

Incidentally with my lack of sleep it is becoming more likely that I'll end up in a smoking heap down a ditch somewhere in West Virginia. I leave on Tuesday and I've promised myself that I will have the bike done by then.
I'm too tired to write more so I will just share some pics.

Half a bike

Thanks for tuning in.
Goodnight (morning)
Benno.

I know that it is way too late for me to be up but......

Well ok not too late for me to be up since my internal clock is set for Japan time..........
I told you fine folks that I was hoping to get my front triangle finished (well polishing anyway) yesterday. I'm sorry that didn't happen. After wet sanding for 2 hours I really didn't have the mental fortitude to finish the job with the attention to detail that it deserved so I finished up a few other bits.
I did finish the front triangle today though and I am completely in shock to the fact that it actually turned out really nice. I guess it makes sense in the end but when you are so used to doing all this prep and the whole time it looks like a turd and finally you finish the hard stuff, you throw on the polish (which only takes like 15min) and BAM.
So without further adieu

Sans camera flash. Still need to clean the excess polish out of the welds.....

With camera flash.

And a few small parts.

I know I should get gold Ti bolts for the shifter but honestly I spent about 90 minutes on the computer the other day ordering bolts and didn't have the time or energy to go through all of my little parts. This will be done over time.

And now I guess I should go to bed. I dislike going to bed about as much as I dislike getting up in the morning. Can't the two just get along??
Benno

Another late night working on the X-Ben

Ohh just thought I'd post a little pic in my paint fume induced stupor. Starting to feel the crunch of the SC deadline looming. The plan from this point is to go full tilt. If I manage to get it done early then power to me but I have a feeling that I am going to need all the time I can get.

Ok just one more coat of clear and then I am off to dream land. I have tomorrow off so should be able to make some good progress. I think I will try and get the front triangle completely finished.
Benny

3 weeks, 6 days

Watching the snow "storm" out my window from the rollers this morning. Enjoying my powertap and discovering how useful Training Peaks is for organizing data from a bunch of different sources.

The real way of getting on rollers.......... or secret cyclocross training?

My ugly rear wheel

Needed an easy day so I only rode 6 hours this morning ;-)
Ben