new addition to the flock

I resolved my paint issues... I went to a local auto body paint joint, picked out a color, and had them do it up... They (Ideal Collision) did a pretty good job (a couple of dirt-type defects and a minor chip), but the $75 price was good and the 3-day turnaround was quick. Of course, I did give it to them stripped and masked, so it's not like it was that difficult to just spray and bake.

Anyway, I got it back from paint on Monday, took it to the local bike shop to have the headset pressed in and got it back on Tuesday. Built it up Tuesday night. Rode it around today and ran some errands just to get miles in the saddle, and I'm just stoked about having it all put together. It's a big/tall bike (standover height), even for me. It definitely rides different than its brothers in the family. I think because the bottom bracket height is almost an inch higher than my roadie bike, and I put a high-ish stem on - feels I'm not stretched out and a little top-heavy, but every bike is a little bit different, no?

It's a commuter, so the lights are going to stay on permanently, and even better - now I have a place for my extra-obnoxious dino-squeaky to warn people that I don't want to hit them when they blunder out into the road.



I'm not really sure about the state of the bullhorn bars right now... I like the hand positions, but integrating brake levers has been a little awkward based on where the bends land. I don't know if I totally like the way it is, and it does smack of the Pretentious Bullhorn Bar wanna-be messenger fixie vibe. But for the moment, it'll do.




The only outstanding thing is a name... I was thinking of an O-name when it was going to be orange (Oscar, Owen, etc.), but since the color turned out more brownish/goldish, "Brian" comes to mind, but other than the brown/brian commonality, I'm completely bored by those names. It's a T-Rex dino-squeaky, right? Maybe he'll just be Rex.