First Ride on the Zeus

Rebuilding a bike from the bearings up as a rookie wrench, new Dad with a new business is a slow process. But that first ride makes the build-up, frustration, humiliating mistakes and lucky breaks worth it all. I finally rode the bike to work. Steel frames are amazingly smooth and this one is no exception. Sewups provide tigher responsiveness to turns, braking and any move, including hopping bumps. Clinchers, by comparison are squishier. However, riding on sew-ups is a non-stop stress fest. If I flat, then what? Will the replacement even stay on the rim when turning? Or do I grab the mobile and call headquarters for a lift? The shame....

Mistakes along the way that taught much:
pedals - I didn't know about pedal threading - French is an outlier in that topic and this bike had a pair of French threaded pedals. So the Zeus pedals I won first on eBay did not fit. Fortunately my Zeus Crit project needed them. I found NIB Zeus French threaded on eBay. So now the pedals are the only new element on a scratched but solid frame. I have to admit, they make you want to paint the frame.

brakes - don't go for the stealth brake look by putting 'cross brakes ONLY on the handlebars. True, the bike looks more fixed gear clean from the side but the lack of the classic hands on hood riding positiion is a problem. I'm putting the original handbrake levers back in version 1.1. The hoods were another education. Mafac racer hoods are required. They are top of the break only rather than wrapping around under the lever. And the Mafac racer hood contains an adjuster - the lever has no cable tension adjuster. My mentor mechanic at Peachtree Bikes filled me in on that vital detail. I would have had a sloppy brake cable installation without his guidance.

chain - had to get a 5 or 6 speed chain (SRAM).

front derailleur - still trying to figure this one out and a picture will be required to explain the problem - new at blogging too so stand by for pic's. The front derailleur lever is in the highest tenstion position for the inner front chainring. That ain't how it's supposed to be! I'm done tinkering with this one. Peachtree Bikes is on the way home from work so I'll find out today how it's supposed to go on. It's likely a cable routing issue but I don't see it.