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Hey you! Want to do something good? Something that will help the world? Then click on the link Support My MS Ride. Why?

Well, MS is a nasty disease. Just about everyone knows someone with it - but often they don't know that the someone has it. It can take many courses, but fundamentally is a disease of the central nervous system. Some of the symptoms can include loss of balance, loss of muscle control, acute sensitivity to light, various forms of pains, and loss of energy. Sometimes its comes and goes, other times it is progressive. In the later case it can be fatal. But, even in its most benign forms its impacts the lives of MS patients and the people around them.

One of this social impacts is related to the onset of MS. MS tends to begin during early to mid adulthood. This means it hits the parents of young children, limiting their ability to nurture these children the way the rest of us nurture our own children.

There are no cures and only limited treatments so far. But, research has developed several promising avenues to pursue. All of this takes money, my money, your money, everybody's money.

Please take a moment to visit my MS website and make a donation!

End of Commercial.

Today, I left work early and went for an nice ride. It's really humid but the temp was only in the low-mid 70's so it was sweaty but comfortable. Afterwards I took a nap (too many late nights in the garage). Then it was back to work for a bit.

After mounting the bottom bracket and crank (compact), I put the front derailer on its tab and scribed it proper position on the seat-tube. There's not a lot of adjustment range, so positioning is sensitive. Old pins in the BB were ground off next and I spotted a slight gap at the tip of one BB point on the seat tube.

To pin the derailer hanger I ground down a finish nail. I was afraid that a hob nail would be to big and might cause the tab to turn or shift. After fluxing and pinning the tab went on and a spot of silver went under the tip of the BB. The latter turned out to be a big spot leading to a bit of filing. But the tab was beautiful. A riding neighbor came by a took a look and said "sweet".

Along the way, I've found a new technique for cleaning tight valleys in the BB. The Fordham tool has a small (3/4 - 1 inch diameter) sanding disk. It works (most of the time) with self-adhesive sanding disks. 80 grit, used with caution, cleans off brass leaving a smooth finish without damaging tubes or lugs. The sanding disk is bigger around than the head it sits on, so it can sand on edge - getting into tight places.

The BB look pretty good now, but I'm going to do just a little more cleanup tomorrow. With luck, I'll cold set the seat-tube and get the top tub installed.

I think this frame will be ready to go by the time Troy is back in town.

Cheers!