The fiddling finally finshes.

I've finally finished fiddling with the bike. I think. Perhaps. For now. Like fiddling with copy, fiddling with the bike set up is well-nigh irresistible. It might be because I have a workstand and a roomy shed. It might also be because I believe one thing firmly: no good comes from having other people work on your bike.

The impending 300km audax this weekend forced me to quickly sort out some issues: I built a new wheel last night to accommodate the generator hub wich runs the magnificent E6 headlight. The Velocity Dyad rims which gave me much trouble last time came together nicely as I laced the wheel between beers and I did the initial tensioning during TV ad breaks. Clearly it pays to take one's time.

I rose at dawn this morning to add the finishing touches before my commute to work: fitting the wheel and installing lovely set of Shimano cantilever brakes. The new brakes replace the horrible V-brakes, which don't work well with drop bars anyway - Travel Agents or not. The result is a thousand percent improvement in braking performance - a lovely feel at the lever, solid as a rock stopping power and I can even set the pads a decent distance from the rim so they don't rub if the wheel isn't perfectly true. (The new wheel is perfectly true.)

It all went well one the commute/shakedown ride this morning. I pronounce this bike finished. OK, maybe just one more fiddle.