After a frustrating night with my unbuildable bike frame, I was relieved to hear that my framebuilder, upon hearing the news, shared my frustration and eagerly proposed a two-tiered solution. First, he would devise a temporary fix that would get me riding this weekend. Then, he would take the frame back when I leave for vacation next week. While I’m out of the country, he would move both of the troublesome parts, strip the paint, re-paint and bake the finish. I didn’t even have to ask. I like the way this guy thinks.

The front derailleur bracket was offset by exactly half the diameter of the bottom bracket shell. This distance turned out to be too short to drop the derailleur with an elegant custom-machined adapter, so Christopher melted off the bracket with a torch, moved it to its final location, and gave the heat-effected zone a temporary coat of black spraypaint. A little filing on an old rear brake would solve the caliper reach problem for now. He picked up the frame at breakfast and returned it after lunch. Impressive service for a Saturday!

So I’m building the bike this weekend after all. And I’m not angry anymore.

Continued in part 7…