The Vassago TKO noodle bar garvel bike is built and ridden, and the Crux has been sold to a happy local person over the past week.
Mebbe you notice some pieces-parts on this bike that don't seem to jive with things I've done in the past. I have to admit, I deferred to Tom's judgment (Vassago Tom) when it came to things of a garvel nature. When we started talking about the build back in February, I didn't know all the options, and I didn't wanna do my own deep dive into the subject. I wanted something that would be optimized for 15% of the riding I do, but in a way that doesn't make the other 85% suck.
I built it up on my own over the course of many sessions, aside from the bottom bracket install because I didn't have the tool (yay, another standard!). I'll get to owning a BBT-47 eventually and add it to the half dozen or so other bottom bracket tools on my pegboard. I will say that it was a tedious assembly for a few reasons.
I don't have internal routing tools, other than some sewing thread, a pick tool, and a hair scrunchy...
I've never worked on SRAM brakes before.
I've never installed a Transmission type drive train (was actually easy tho).
Learning how the whole SRAM AXS ecosystem works, in terms of programming things, hierarchy of setup, etc. Just ask me how to screw it up and then unscrew it, because I have that knowledge now.
Noodle bar/lever/stem spacers... gotta get close to ded-to-nuts on with shortening the brake lines when it comes to the cockpit setup. There's not much room for error.
Other forms of self-sabotage.
Yeth, I wanted internal through-the-headset brake routing. Sorry not sorry. It looks so clean, and I put a lot of trust in the Cane Creek Hellbender bearings in the headset. In as many years as I can remember, I've never pulled back the seal on a Hellbender bearing and seen any contamination... just a slight pain in my brain for bothering to take everything apart to have a look. I'm guessing this will last my lifetime.
That said...
Cutting the hoses, figuring out how to plug them to prevent fluid loss while futzing with the length and getting it routed through the fork, measuring the steer tube (four times) and cutting it (twice), getting the lines to go through the very tight ports on the HCR headset whilst sliding everything together also whilst keeping an essential and cantankerous o-ring in place, plying the lines into the spacers and the grooves in the Zipp XPLR bar also also whilst keeping it all in place and getting the stem's faceplate on...
I needed about seven more hands than I had. I constantly reminded myself that there would be a reward for the work I was doing. That said...
I see why mechanics hate fully internal, and if you don't do this work yourself, you owe them every dollar they charge to do it.
Oh, the self-sabotage thing?
Long story short, in an aim for perfection that defied my ignorance, the lack of steadiness in my hands, and too little forethought, I not only dropped a rubber plug into the frame, I also lost a tiny screw that holds the metal cable frame ports in place... also inside the frame. I coulda let the rubber plug go, but if I could even hear the screw jangle inside the frame once, it would essentially be a whole Tell-Tale Heart situation (read a book, kid). I lost forty five minutes of my life contorting the frame in space, listening to the screw travel through almost every tube in the frame (not kidding, bottom bracket shell, top tube, down tube, head tube, and one chain stay at the very least) before it finally fell out to the floor. Bonus points that the rubber plug met the same fate about fifteen minutes into the process.
I've got about 160 miles on the bike so far, with one proper garvel ride. I'm beyond smitten. This thing rides on rails and is everything I wanted it to be... gotta get used to all the buttons tho. Never thought I'd use that 46 tooth cog, but I'd also never ridden up a 12% grade on a saturated Roseborough Road either. It's a fighter plane on descents with "Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta*" playing over and over in my head. I have no regrets other than not adjusting my brake lever reach before bombing down gravel at 30mph+ in the chilly rain.
And finally, I'm going to have to say goodbye to the Vertigo Meatplow V.7 soon. The only reason I could possibly hold onto it is sentimentality, and I don't buy into that concept. If I did, I'd still have an '87 Suzuki Samurai in my driveway collecting dust. As much as it hurts to part with it, it hurts even more to see it forgotten on a hook in the Pie's office with almost flat tires. Going forward, if I was going to grab a rigid single speed, it would be the 32" Maximus. If I wanted a bike with front suspension, I'd take the Optimus with 130mm of travel over the Vertigo with the Fox Stepcast 32 up front. I can't stomach the thought of downgrading it to a bar bike/grocery getter, which is the current purpose of the more limited Stickel (27.2 post, 2.2 rear tire clearance). The Vertigo will make someone very happy, and I have future-proofed it pretty hard by buying extra wheel bearings, a backup external dropper post, seals for the Stepcast fork, etc. It will pain me, but it will also being me as much joy as when I see my old Moots at the Whitewater Center being piloted by Eric Van Driver or that time I ran into the owner of Meatplow V.1 in Greensboro or...
Point being, it deserves to be ridden. I thought I had room for six bikes in my world, but they all have to come off the hook often enough to justify their existence. Although I thought I'd keep this bike forever, that was true... until 32" wheels became a thing. Sigh and also sadness. I've made so many memories on this bike in twelve years, so here's hoping someone else can make at least twelve more.
So... changes indeed.
Atlanta Cat 100 this weekend BTW. Still undecided which bike I'm taking tho, but I know at least one bike that is not on the list of options.
* As much as an almost 57 year old male Caucasian garvel dad lord can feel like a "gangsta"
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