Okay, so I've been slacking on the updates a little bit, but we're very much nearly there now...
The cockpit has finally been sorted thanks to the aforementioned levers (courtesy of eBay and what little I have left in my bank account) and a few other bits I had shipped to work in the UK and eventually forwarded on to me here in LA.
I was always going to go with an Azonic Double Wall riser bar, and in the end have settled on the silver colour. I've been looking out for the gold version, as I think it will balance out the build nicely (it's a little less gold and little more champagne in real life, if I remember correctly!) But I've not been able to track one down yet. Silver works nicely-enough with everything else in the meantime though, especially as I went with the black and silver Ultimates. Those have gone alongside some M900 shifters, once again courtesy of the ever helpful
@timkrik.
The shifters were fitted using a set of Shogun perches (cheers
@Disco Drive), which are another thing I'd like to replace with something a little nicer at some point down the road.
Now that I'm close to the end I've been taking my time, making little alterations here and there to certain things. Replacing bolts and the like. So I decided to replace the stock black bolts on the Shogun perches with some silver ones I'd bought from a supplier online... you know, for another little black and silver hit! Only problem was that I inadvertently picked-up the wrong sized bolt from my work table while installing them, one a fraction longer than the original, and in screwing it in have managed to split the casing on the righthand pod ever so slightly.
Gutted.
I didn't notice this until the bolt was all the way screwed in (wondering the whole time why the clamp wasn't tightening around the bar sufficiently), and I guess the pressure those additional millimeters caused must have forced the plastic to crack.
Luckily, it doesn't appear to have done any damage to the inner workings of the shifter itself (to be confirmed during cabling and indexing). But I suppose I'll now look to replace the shifter casing at some point, if at all possible.
I'd rather not have to purchase a whole new pod, so if anyone reading this happens to have a spare M900 shifter casing floating around, perhaps because the shifter itself is broken beyond repair, please let me know!
For grips I chose the classic Ritchey foam kind. I wanted something in black, and have always liked how these feel, and the chunky, angled look they have when installed on a bar. They're also cheap! And I couldn't really stomach another ridiculous expense this late in the game.
Side note: I actually bought a black Azonic Double Wall bar originally, but when it arrived it was a little too tatty for this build. The silver one showed up on eBay.co.uk a little while later in much nicer condition, and, although I think in hindsight the 3" rise would have been better (hopefully that's what I can find the gold one's in) the 2" is perfectly manageable for now. I think the black bar would have been just a little too JMC-lite anyway. And I've been conscious all the way through this project of wanting to build something that skates on the right side of inspired-by rather than not-quite! For the same reason, while I was originally going to go with a pair of the Onza Ules repros, I don't love them in the black colour, and I actually thought yellow would be a touch too far with the JMC references, as well as a little matchy with the decals and the brake pads. Less is more with a colour like yellow, I think!
Anyway, this is all a bit boring isn't it?
Some photos then:
Up next... caustic soda ano stripping time!
(Don't worry, nothing you can see here)