And So It Begins

A new bicycle has begun to take shape.

We start with the frame, of course, in all its purple glory. The magnificent Santa Cruz Stigmata.

You might not think it, but the first piece to go on (other than the bottom bracket and cranks, which were installed by the shop because I happened to purchase them together on the same order) is the seat post.

Interestingly, this is actually the seat post from The Red Devil, my CAAD9, which later got recycled for Phoenix Down, my CAAD10 when The Red Devil's frame got damaged. Then when Phoenix Down's frame cracked and was replaced by Dirty Dozen, my CAAD12, they switched to a smaller seat post and this one went in the spare parts drawer. But it's a nice carbon seat post, so there's no reason not to use it.

So why, you might ask, does the seat post go in first? Well, it's a simple matter of needing something to hold on to.

Anyway, now that we've got a good grip on things we can liberate the frame from its shipping material.

And reveal its true beauty.

Now that the frame is free from its cardboard prison, we can go ahead and install the fork and headset, and slip on a spacer and the stem while we're at it so the fork doesn't fall right back out again.

We'll also need the handlebars installed, so we'll slip those in place.

I want to be able to get a handle on how the fit of the bike is coming together, so that I know the bars are in the right place before I go trimming up the brake hoses, and to do that I need the wheels on. The wheels, of course, need tires, so let's shave that yak.

Most road bikes tend to run the same tire front and back (as do my road bikes), but in the mountain bike world it's quite common to run a slower, grippier tire in the front to keep you upright, and run a faster, looser tire in the rear to keep things quick and lively. The combo of the Continental Terra Trail in front and the Terra Speed in the back should hopefully balance out nicely for this build.

But the bike isn't going anywhere without a cassette, and it isn't gonna stop going everywhere without some brake rotors, so let's get those in place.

And this is where things start to go a little sideways.

I did not expect this issue. Despite the fact that the Stigmata is specced from the factory with centerlock disc rotors, the lockring on mine is interfering with the fork leg, and the front wheel won't spin.

The lockring isn't an unusual one; in fact it's the official Shimano lockring (Shimano is big on the whole centerlock thing. I'm not sure if they invented it or are just really keen on it, but this lockring should be as close to "this is how it's designed to work" as you could get). It's not some weird knock-off brand or anything like that.

In fact, the DT Swiss wheels on Purple Haze have the exact same lockring, just stamped with DT Swiss, and they clear the fork on that bike, if only by a hair.

But I checked, and installing this wheel in the Stigmata results in the same interference.

SooooOOoOoooOOO I'm gonna need different lockrings, I guess. In fact, I'll probably get two and replace the one on Purple Haze here too, just to give things a bit more clearance while I'm at it. This will also, once again, leave me with two spare lockrings which I can use on my next bike build.

I say once again, because the lockrings I installed here are actually left over from when I built up Purple Haze a few years ago. I wasn't sure if the wheels would come with the lockrings, so since they were pretty cheap I decided to save time and purchase a pair just so I wouldn't be left waiting on parts if that happened to be the case. It didn't, however, so I ended up with an extra pair to toss in the parts drawer, and while I was collecting the bits for this build I thought I was so lucky to have saved them.

Ah well, it is what it is.

On the subject of circular things, I also discovered that I was missing a 1.85mm spacer that's required when fitting an Eagle cassette to an XDR freehub body. Something tells me that the goodie bag of parts that came with the hubs on my new wheels might have gone missing, because at the very least that 1.85mm spacer is supposed to come with the XDR freehub body. HmmMMmmmMmm.

Well, I sent an email to the wheel manufacturer to see what they suggest on both items. They're pretty friendly folks so I think I'm in good hands there.

In the mean time, the bike is looking pretty bike-like.

I actually have the rear derailleur installed too (and the cassette uninstalled until I get the proper spacer), as well as the pedals, but I didn't take another picture to show that. You'll have to wait for the next update to see those, I guess.

At this point I'm not completely blocked; I can install the brakes and levers and will probably get to that either Friday or over the weekend. For now it's getting late and, given I'm not going to be able to complete this without a few more tiny parts, it seems like a good spot to put a bookmark in this build and pick it up later.