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21,853 Posts
Everybody should have an ERFO.
Don’t get me wrong, there was absolutely nothing wrong with Miss M’s old Waterford RS14 fixte, nothing wrong at all.
I gave it to her on Christmas of ’03 to replace a completely worn out Fuji fixte. She has been riding the heck out of it ever since and it was her favorite ride by far. Even with all that riding a quality fixte doesn’t require a lot of service or repair. A few chains, a new rear rim, some tires, tubes and brake pads were all I ever replaced in 10s of thousands of miles.
Still I have always thought that Miss M deserves the very best. Lately though I was noticing that her ride wasn’t the nicest one around (heck my fixte was more styling than hers). One thing is for sure no one I know rides more than she does year in a year out so it is really easy to justify her riding top end stuff on a cost per mile basis. Since I was leaving the bike shop and this was going to be my last chance to get a bike at cost it was time to pull the trigger and get an upgrade.
I gave the guys at Waterford a call and got the frame going-it was easy for them to get started since they had already built her 2 frames. I talked to Dave at Waterford about the paint style and colors I had in mind and he took it from there (with a note to the shop to “Make it pretty”).
Floyd at the bike shop and Commuter Guy at work helped me agonize over the parts. We were trying to select the very best of the best. They really enjoyed helping since they weren’t going to have to pay for anything.
We selected some Campy here, some Paul there, Brooks and Thompson of course, Salsa, Mavic and Michelin with just a touch of Shimano to show we aren’t complete snobs. Then it was time to start placing orders.
Parts started to show up last month and the frame arrived last Friday. I took a few parts and the wheels off her old fixte (her new wheel parts aren’t in yet) and built it up in 2 rainy evenings.
As soon as it dries up around here I’ll have some riding pix and her impressions of the thing for you.
Don’t get me wrong, there was absolutely nothing wrong with Miss M’s old Waterford RS14 fixte, nothing wrong at all.
I gave it to her on Christmas of ’03 to replace a completely worn out Fuji fixte. She has been riding the heck out of it ever since and it was her favorite ride by far. Even with all that riding a quality fixte doesn’t require a lot of service or repair. A few chains, a new rear rim, some tires, tubes and brake pads were all I ever replaced in 10s of thousands of miles.
Still I have always thought that Miss M deserves the very best. Lately though I was noticing that her ride wasn’t the nicest one around (heck my fixte was more styling than hers). One thing is for sure no one I know rides more than she does year in a year out so it is really easy to justify her riding top end stuff on a cost per mile basis. Since I was leaving the bike shop and this was going to be my last chance to get a bike at cost it was time to pull the trigger and get an upgrade.
I gave the guys at Waterford a call and got the frame going-it was easy for them to get started since they had already built her 2 frames. I talked to Dave at Waterford about the paint style and colors I had in mind and he took it from there (with a note to the shop to “Make it pretty”).
Floyd at the bike shop and Commuter Guy at work helped me agonize over the parts. We were trying to select the very best of the best. They really enjoyed helping since they weren’t going to have to pay for anything.
We selected some Campy here, some Paul there, Brooks and Thompson of course, Salsa, Mavic and Michelin with just a touch of Shimano to show we aren’t complete snobs. Then it was time to start placing orders.
Parts started to show up last month and the frame arrived last Friday. I took a few parts and the wheels off her old fixte (her new wheel parts aren’t in yet) and built it up in 2 rainy evenings.
As soon as it dries up around here I’ll have some riding pix and her impressions of the thing for you.
