My frustration level is very high right now. I spent a couple of days working on putting my beloved bicycle back together. Well actually i spent a lot of it procrastinating because i was worried about my skills. Some of it was perfectionism, i'm sure, but most of it was a legitimate worry. I'm out of my depth. I've put a lot of effort in the last year into learning about bicycle repair -- and in fact i have learned a lot. However i'm a long way off on a lot of things.
The headset installation went very well, that was fun. My friend Steve loaned me a magnificent headset press and my friend Dave came over to play with it with me. Having the right tool for the job is amazing. The almost impossible process of shoving the headset cups into the top and bottom of the steerer tube exactly level was a snap with that wonderful tool. We had fun.
The next day i returned the headset press to Steve in the morning when we watched the England vs West Indies world cup cricket match. Later Kent came by and helped with the bottom bracket, placing the derailleurs and other miscellaneous things. It was a big help and a nice visit.
That left me with placing small accessories, and all the cables, housings, and drive train adjustments. I really struggled, but i finally got the cabling done in a workable way, in fact, mostly excellent, except where i ran out of housing and had to improvise. The brake adjustments were very, very frustrating and took a very long time. Not having the right tools hurt me here, but i also just don't have enough practice. And after a few hours of fighting with the derailleurs i gave up for the night in a torrent of shouted obscenities that i'm not proud of. And i haven't even started on the fenders or generator.
I'll give the derailleurs a go again tomorrow morning, and maybe if my 40 mile 'back on the bike' ride is canceled, i'll call in a friend for some help.
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