Day 7--Epiphany!!!

Today was a great day. It was also not a great day. I was about 2 days behind in class when the day started even though I had spent several hours outside of school filing my lugs down. It was a little stressful when I still could not fit my lugs perfectly on my tubes. I kept working at it and finally got some good advice from Ron on how to get them to fit. In the morning I was able to get the head tube and top tube assembly done which was exciting because it started looking like a bike! :) In between lectures on chain stays, seat stays and mitering we continued to work on our frames. Supposedly they have taught 1500 people how to build frames and have almost a 100% success rate so I don't really want to be the one who doesn't get her bike done. The day went by very quickly and I was tired from staying up so late but tonight they let us stay after for a while for the first time and I was so relieved. By the end of the day I was pretty much ready to braze my whole triangle and my chain stays. Ron was ultra nice and stayed and helped me so patiently for 2 1/2 hours after class. I got the whole thing done! It was hardcore as I had that torch on for 90 minutes straight. Intense.......That was the good part.

Ron is a super nice guy and owner of UBI. Here he is helping me set up my triangle for brazing.

So, I left the shop in a daze around 7:30pm and saw David getting on his bike. I told him to wait and so we rode up the mountain hard partly on gravel and sucked wind for about a 1000 feet. Then we went down Morton Street. This is a crazy street that goes down the mountain at a 20% grade! (Or up if you want to ride it!). We then headed for Dead Indian Memorial Hwy which is the 12 miles up that Ariel and I rode the other day. It was serious stress relief but it was getting dark so we turned around.

In the middle of this cathartic release of tension, talking to people and Ron helping me measure up my frame for brazing I realized that for the past 10 years I thought that the size of a bike frame was the top tube length instead of the seat tube length. I have no idea where I came up with this other than when I got my Pinarello (my first bike as an adult) that this size was determined and fit me very well. So, now I am the biggest MORON on the face of the earth--going to bike school without knowing this very important fact and the combination of all these conversations I had tonight being a total ephipany! Needless to say I made my bike about a size too small so my bubble has been burst a bit. The geometry is different because it is a cross bike so I am hoping that it works out ok in the end once I get it all put together. This was the bad part of the day. In any event below you can see my nicely brazed head tube with my fancy lugs. It will eventually be cleaned up. Even if it doesn't fit it will at least look pretty.