monogodo

Of the two big projects I had this past weekend, one is complete and the other needs more work. And oddly enough, the one I thought I'd complete isn't done, and the one I thought I'd have to work on over time is complete.

1. HD Upgrade. I installed the HD, figured out how to get it to boot from CD (it helps to use the actual XP CD and not the XP training CD). Installed XP, and it worked great, it only crashed once during the install, but recovered & resumed just fine. I then attempted to install XP SP2 from CD, and it seems to work, but it won't boot now. I've switched back to the old HD while I think about how to solve the situation. I think I'll just reinstall XP from CD, and forego SP2 until absolutely necessary. Maybe.
2. Colnago Single-speed Conversion. This is the one I thought would take time. I thought I needed a bunch of parts to make it work, but it turns out I had some parts that would work, and utilized some of the original parts that I hadn't intended on using. I cleaned the bike up on Saturday evening. It's beautiful. I even found a tube of metal polish to polish up the chrome forks and the aluminum brakes and hubs. On Sunday I went to Richardson Bike Mart and got the parts that I knew were essential to the conversion:
   
   
   • 18-tooth freewheel
   • brake cable
   • 4' of brake cable housing (black)
   • 15g stainless steel spokes (3)
   
   I initially only needed one spoke, since I had broken the spoke years ago and never replaced it. While inspecting the wheel, I found another spoke was going to break, as it had a nick in it. As I was removing it, a third spoke snapped. I'm glad it happened while I was working on it (and before I made the trip for a spoke) and not while I was riding it. I reused the old chain, which is in bad shape, but it'll work for now. I also dug up some old Red Granite handlebar tape that I've had for at least 15 years. I had it in the bottom of my tool box from my packrat days. Saved $10 by using it and not buying new tape. I also cut off the lower inward curve from the Scott Drop Ins handlebars, turning them into regular drop bars, only with a shorter lower drop extension than standard. Since I spend very little time in the drops, it should be just fine. I still need to true up the rear wheel (the one with the 3 new spokes) so that it's straighter. As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't have to be perfect, but it needs to be closer than it is. All in all, I spent $34.03, including tax, on the conversion. Now I just need to get some pics and ride it.