José paid a visit today and work continued on Hornsby. I’d marked the steerer length previously, so the first order of business today was to take the fork to the office and use the workshop there to cut the steerer to length.
Back home again, we hammered the retaining nut into the steerer and got the fork back in the frame, then spent a few minutes getting the stem aligned before torquing it to spec. The next step was to add one of the surprises I’ve been hinting at from the start of the project.
The bars went on easily enough. The next step was to add the brake levers and trigger shifter, and this was a bit more troublesome. After some trial and error, we ended up with the trigger shifter on the horn first and then the brake lever. On the left side, there’s just the brake lever and that was no issue.
This is all a bit experimental — I’m going to wait until I’m sitting on the bike to determine the final positioning of the controls, and there may be some further experimentation.
Thinking now from front to rear of the bike, the next step was to add the nubs on the downtube shifter bosses. The nub on the left is simply a decorative cover (which also creates a rounder shape to minimize injury in case of a mishap), while the nub on the drive side includes a barrel adjuster for the shifter cable.
Final surprise — for today
The next surprise is the brake calipers. I’ve been wanting these since I first saw them more than a year ago. When I asked at the store for them, I was told that they weren’t available in purple, and the grey ones wouldn’t fit Hornsby’s IS standard mounts. Instead I got a pair of SRAM calipers that included the necessary adapters and rotors. I wasn’t crazy about them, but they would fill the bill and were reasonable.
While I was slowly bringing Hornsby to life, I came across a post showing the brakes in purple. I zoomed back to the bike shop with the post and showed it to a salesperson there. He checked the inventory computer and said they’re not available. (I confirmed afterwards that they’re not shown on the maker’s site.)
The post I’d seen was from a US online retailer. So, while the brakes are made in Japan, I ended up buying them and having them sent from the US. The same retailer also sells the required adapters under their own brand, Velo Orange.
I couldn’t find any diagram showing how to install the brake calipers with the adapter mounts. In the end I worked it out myself, and with José’s help we soon had them installed.
(I’ve put off returning the SRAM calipers until I could confirm these would work out, and so I haven’t yet purchased the rotors. That’s the only missing piece of the build at this point.)
What remains
By the time we had the calipers installed (with final adjustment to await getting the rotors), José was running out of time. Thinking of the remaining tasks and picking one that would present a visual win, I decided to install the chain. I’ve learned since the first couple of times doing this that the grease that comes from the factory is not chain lube but a rust preventer. So the first job is to remove that with a liberal application of degreaser.
After sizing and cutting the chain, I turned over the installation of the master link to José, who only needed a little coaching to figure it out. We also adjusted the front hub, which had a little play following the recent clean and re-lube. And that’s where things stand now.
Yet to be done:
- Purchase and install brake rotors
- Cables and adjusting
- Install saddle
- Wrap the handlebars
- Add a protective wrap on the top tube to prevent scratches / denting from the handlebars
- Sundries: water bottle cages, pump, accessory bag
- One more surprise
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