Ohanami

One always needs goals.  My goal with this bike was to get it painted, assembled and ridden before the cherry blossoms had all fallen.  In the end I squeaked by, but only just.  First ride was April 27th, and it was good.  Of course I had to take some gratuitous pictures in front of the cherry blossoms in Fairmount Park, and then do some loops through the winding park roads. Two awesome things occurred during the ride.  One, my bike didn't break, and actually rode pretty much exactly as I'd hoped it would.  Two, I got a flat tire.  What made the flat tire awesome is that it happened right across the street from a condo building on City Avenue that's undergoing rennovation.  As I pulled out my spare tube, wrenched around for way too long with the Michelin tire on the stupid deep section rims, and started to pump things back up with the cutest little pump ever, I noticed the security guard from the building winding his way down the driveway and across the street towards me.  I thought he was just headed to the convenience store to my back, but he was definitely headed my way.  

When he got about 70 feet from me (standard Philadelphia conversation distance) he yelled out, "Yo, you got a pump? Lemme see that?"  He was totally smitten with the micro pump that I was furiously employing to get the tire back up to pressure.  

I responded, "Yeah, it's awesome to carry, but it's a pain to use.  You basically have to pump it a million times to get the tire inflated."

"Right, I was over there watching you and it looked like you was jerkin' off!"

Yep, that's what I was thinking it must have looked like, and that's what he came out and said.  I replied, "Yeah, you know, just sitting here on the side of the road, enjoying the weather, jackin' it."  

Then he turned and went, "See ya. Have a good one." and walked into the store to get an ice tea.

Some progress

I finally got the tubes all tacked together and it's time to start the lay up of the joints. This is the first bike that I've ever done with full carbon construction, and honestly, it's a lot easier than working with bamboo. Things are straight, at least for the factory made tubes, and there isn't the concern about splitting.

A quick rundown of the geometry that I've settled on for my 'perfect' road bike.

All dimensions in millimeters.  

• Head Tube 182
• Seat Tube 570
• Top Tube 590
• Chainstay Length 410
• Seat Tube Angle 73 deg
• Head Tube Angle 73 Deg
• Rake 43
• Trail 58
• BB Drop 72

The idea here is more of a road bike, as in something for the longer steadier courses, than a criterium bike.  I'm hoping that stability will be good, and that it will just lean into a corner and stick it.  Even with my 177.5 mm cranks, I can get away with the lower BB drop because I prefer Speedplay pedals with their extra cornering clearance.   In the end, it works out pretty much the same as a 68 BB drop with standard Look or SPD pedals.  I have really liked how well the lower overall center of gravity felt on my last bike, though that was largely due to an incorrect fit.