keepthosestreetsburning

Yep, "keep those streets burning", that's what it says on the inner side of the chain stays of my new road bike bike , the BMC Streetfire :) Well, it is not completely new; other than the frame, crank, chain and seatpost, all the rest of stuff are from another bike. It was bike lust more than anything that prompted me to buy this frame. I saw some guy riding it on one of the Anza rides and so went to check it out the web, and the next thing I knew, I was ordering it as it was on closeout sale!

And as usual, I built the bike up myself....really good practice for me! I spent the whole of Friday night trying to figure out how the integrated headset works. The headset came in a small box, with no diagram showing how they are supposed to come together. I was really stressed up assembling and disassembling the entire thing cos it just did not feel right! It was only the next day that I realised that maybe not all the parts there are for the headset! One of which might be the fork crown race for the fork!! Now, the last time I built the Planet X, the fork crown race had a split in the middle. This one did not have that! That's why I could not recognize it!

Lesson No.1 - Some fork crown races come in one solid piece!

Lesson No.2- The fork crown race that comes with the headset is not interchangeable with another headset, especially if they are from different brands. This is due to the angle of contact!

Next I tried to fit the crown race on the fork. I did not have the tools for this, but I have read on the web that it is possible to use a PVC pipe to hammer it in. So I bought a 30cm piece of pipe and did exactly that. But I still couldn't get it in! By then, I was getting a bit frustrated......I was tired, slept late, missed my Saturday ride, have not trained for 2 days......I really felt like pulling the plug, save the trouble and just bring all the stuff to Ah Wee and get him to fix up the whole bike for me. But I decided to give it one last shot. I brought only the fork and the crown race to Ah Wee. He was kind enough to use the special tool that he had and with a few hard slams, got the crown race in in less than a minute! :)

Lesson No.3 - If I dun have the tool for the job, just bring it to the bike shop!

Once that was settled, the rest was very easy:) It was a matter of putting the rest of the parts together. But I got freaked out one more time when I was setting up the rear brake. I realised that the frame was missing one set of brake cable guides on the top tube!!! On no!! I will have to strip everything and send the frame back! Maybe that's why they are on sale! Luckily, I calmed myself down and searched on the internet for pics of this bike and I was totally surprised by my discovery! There is actually a small hole in that CNC junction for some plastic guide for the brake cable to pass through!! So that is what the plastic guide is for! I had seen it while unpacking the frame but din know what it was. Luckily, I did not throw it away!

I am using a SRAM Rival crankset and bb for this build, while the rest of the parts are 7 year Campy record. I did not want to try removing the old carnk and bb from my old bike because it is already 7 years old, and I have never diassembled it once in those 7 years....I am sure it is all corroded and yucky in there! The chain is a SRAM as well. The width is almost the same as a Campy one so should not be a problem. I was able to get some practice in joining the chain together using a Powerlink; just snap and go! The FD from my old bike is a braze-on, and because there is no braze-on mount on my bike, I bought an adapter that converted it into a clamp-on. The adjustment of the derailleurs was a bit tedious as I had to read the campy manual to figure which screw is for high/low limit, but once that was done, everything was good to go! :)

Impressions from first ride this morning....

I felt comfortable the moment I sat on the saddle! :) The shifting was good; chain din fall off, gears did not ghost shift, every shift to a bigger gear was met by a reassuring "thunk!". However, the braking of the rear brake is a bit mushy; perhaps due to the plastic cable guide. There was also a bit of chain rubbing on the FD where it is on the big chainring, big rear sprocket combo...but that is expected.

Now, the ride..... I am just amazed by how the bike feels. Although it is an aluminium bike, and I am using the same wheels as I do on my regular carbon road bike......it is very comfortable and only feels a tad harsher! Maybe this is due to the long exposed section of the carbon seatpost, the full carbon fork and the carbon handlebars. In fact, though this is only my first ride, I did not feel any discomfort at all! Perhaps that is why Phonak chose to use the Streetfire, instead of their carbon SLC for the Paris-Roubaix-known for its many cobblestone sections.

The frame is really value for money. I honestly do not think that another frame costing 5 or 6 times of this will ride 5 to 6 times better. Plus, I really like the paint scheme on the bike. Looking at it just make me happy! Hopefully, this will spur me to ride more!