The Steamroller came last night. w00t! Very nice, industrial-looking frame. I’m sorta psyched about the rear triangle, as the boys at Surly massage the chainstays to allow for fatter tyres, which should come in handy for the winter. Anyway, Eli had the bright idea that I should document this little building project, so I think I will.

First thing I noticed when I pulled the frame from the box — there wasn’t a headset. Every stock photo of the frame and fork show it with a headset installed, and I planned everything around this. At first I thought this wouldn’t be a problem, as I had a spare threadless headset in the basement, but it turns out that headset is 1″, whereas the Steamroller needs 1 1/8″. Hmmmm. Fortunately, Kraynick’s is open til 6:00 tonight, and even more fortunately, Dave is slacking off today, so he can help me install one.

So without a bottom bracket (which should be delivered today) or a headset, there was precious little I could really do last night (especially since it was 10:30pm before I even started). So, I threaded the track cog/lockring on my new wheel (Mavic MA3 rim laced to a Suzue basic track hub), gazed at the new frame a bit more, then called it a night. Tonight should be much more productive, since I’ll have all the parts. Perhaps there will be pics of the complete bike on Saturday!

Posted on 24 September 2004