Bottoms revisited

Knock at the door today and a delivery man with two new tyres and an ISIS bottom bracket tool. So time to fit the bottom bracket to the bike. Sun is shining and all the chores are finished so I feel I can spend a little time working on something else.

Out on the patio with all the components laid out, I feel as if I can see how it fits together. What I can't see is where this bottom bracket tool comes in. There are no splines on a spindle this size for it to fit into. In fact it is rather too large for the job. Decide to check out the instruction manual it seems that my initial impression of not requiring a tool are correct. In fact it proves a doddle to fit with only a brief check of the Blackspire website to check on the orientation of the chainguard. But I may need a crank extractor sooner than I think. On placing the left crank arm to the bottom bracket the whole thing becomes stiff and unresponsive. Then the lockring begins to rotate. I remove the crank pin and try to take the crank off the bottom bracket, but no go, and you guessed none of my crank extraction tools will shift it. I actually manage to tighten the lockring up round the crank so it all looks neat and tidy. So I think a trip to the shops for the correct tool is required, but it will do for now. I'm also going to have to sort the bolting of the rear to the frame so I will clearly be making one trip to a cycle shop soon.

Next will be hanging the rear derailleur and fitting the chain, but I think this is a job to complete at uncle riotous's garage where there is a workstand. Not only will it make it easier to complete the alignment, but it will save a bad back when we have finished. We will also fit the front forks from the old bike, so by the end we should be on the road.