The Halfakid came by today, a rainy and chilly day at the Workshop in the Sky, and together we got most of the reassembly done on Ol’ Paint following her recent repaint job.

Before the Halfakid’s arrival, I spent some time in a final truing of the wheels, after which I attempted to mount the tubes and rims. To my chagrin, I found that I had the wrong innertubes. I’d bought tubes with Dunlop valves, but the rims are made for Schrader. (I’ve only had five or six months to check this, so of course I put it off until today.) The correct tubes should arrive tomorrow.

Not long after this discovery, the Halfakid arrived. The next check was whether the seatpost and clamp fit. The new seatpost is much, much longer than the one it replaces, but the short answer is they fit and work as intended.

After inserting the seatpost and using that to clamp the frame into the workstand, we turned our attention to the headset and fork. I’d kept the original headset as it only needed a cleaning. With my fumblefingers I managed to drop the bearing race right off the bat, but the Halfakid retrieved it and replaced the one ball bearing that had skittered off to regions unknown. After applying a generous dollop of grease, we were soon pressing the fork and headset into place, and adding the handlebar stem. Unfortunately, we’re missing a 10mm spacer. I’ll have a look around my stash, and look for a replacement if necessary. In the meantime, we secured everything, with the 10mm gap apparent above the stem.

Transmission

With the seatpost and fork in place, we turned our attention to the transmission: bottom bracket, crankset, cassette and derailleur. I’m happy to say everything here fit with only a little poking and prodding. The chainring is a bit close to the chainstay but it fits. (If there’s any issue with this, the easiest solution will be a smaller chainring.)

The brakes took a bit of time to sort out but presented no real issues. We had a time of it getting the cable housings cut to length and passing the cables through. After that the seat and pedals went on with no trouble at all.

To do

With that, we’re almost done. We need the correct innertubes, of course, and then the tires. Adjusting the shifter and brakes. The brake cable housings did not cut cleanly and I need to follow up to make sure the cables slide smoothly. And finally work the seatpost a bit further down into the seat tube. With that, she’ll be ready for the inaugural ride.