The big bike build: Told in photographs

July 14, 2015

I took my frame into Gripsport, the company that specialise in bicycle frame repairs, and they took one look at Graham’s weld and declared everything to be absolutely fine. No worries at all, I could just keep riding it. No, not really, they didn’t really say that. They looked at it with horror and listened to my story of being hit by a kangaroo (like most Australians this wasn’t a story which surprised them much, I think there are very few Australians who haven’t been hit by kangaroos) and promised to fix the frame up as good as new within a couple of days. And then it was time to focus on Dea’s bike build. A beautiful story which is perhaps best told in photographs:

Dea cycled the first borrowed bike back to Commuter Cycles, and then borrowed a different bike, which could carry a trailer. On this trailer she managed to fit the frame, wheels, and various other components. She cycled this bike back to our AirBnb hosts.

Dea's new bike arrived safely at the house (just to clarify, her new bike is not the bike, it's still in pieces on the trailer)

Everything prepared and ready to be assembled

Buying pre-built wheels made this simply a matter of putting on the tyres and screwing on the cassette

Dea had never built a bike before, or done much in the way of bicycle maintenance, but she was very keen to build the bike herself, so she would know all about it and it would really feel like her bike

I should probably point out that although this whole process appears to have taken no more than a few minutes, the bike build you have just witnessed was spread out over the course of a couple of days, at the end of which Dea looked very happy with her new bike. Which was fair enough because, as I think you’ll agree, it looked seriously bad-ass. Once it was done it was time to cycle once again to Commuter Cycles so that they could finish up the steering tube. Dea excitedly cycled on her new bike, whilst I took the borrowed bike with the now-empty bob trailer. Just out from the house we took a busy street past Gripsport and I wondered how they were getting on with my own frame. Because of the traffic we cycled on the footpath and had to be careful of cars pulling out of driveways. I noticed one suddenly appear to my left from behind a fence and hit the brakes sharply to give way. Then there was a loud noise as I was clattered from behind by Dea. ‘Oh no!’ I thought, fearing the worst. She’d gone straight into the back of the trailer. That must be some kind of record, surely - crashing a new bike within the first kilometre, I bet no one has done that before. “Don’t worry” I said, “we’ve just passed a bicycle frame repair shop!”

But with great fortune it wasn’t required as no serious damage had been done to Dea or her bike and we were able to continue on our way. It felt strange for me to be cycling a different bike, and I didn’t much like towing a trailer, especially as it had no flag on it. The lack of flag may have represented a weak excuse for Dea to run into the back of me, but probably explained how the car came to bump me as we waited at another give way line a short while later. One might have thought I would be safe once we got onto a path through a park, but even there I got clattered by a little kid with a scooter. With this third collision I’d now been hit more times in fifteen kilometres on this bike than I had in 95,000 kilometres on my own, and it was frankly a relief to make it finally to the shop all in one piece.

There we found Huw, still smiling, still happy and enthusiastic, and he fixed the steering tube and added a few finishing touches. I really can’t recommend Commuter Cycles enough – they had been really amazing throughout the whole process and seemed to really care that Dea got the right bike, the bike she wanted, the bike which could carry her all the way to Gold Coast and beyond. And now she had it.

Cycling back into the city (I'd decided Dea should ride in front by this point)

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