Baking a Casseroll...

Introducing my nouvelle petite reine.¹ Well, her torso, really.

A spicy Salsa Casseroll, size 57 cm, that is dreaming of rolling suburban byways and city alleys with a fix on. First impressions are that this is a well-constructed, well-finished frame. I believe it's about a pound lighter than my Cross-Check (both 4130 chromoly)—not much of a weight savings, but at $280 for frame and fork, I couldn't pass it up. Ginger Beer is the color. Stainless-steel, semi-horizontal dropouts. Elegant. Hell, I'd even go so far as to say "classy", though in a meretricious way: a versatile strumpet with a sense of fashion, not yet jaded by nights spent trolling the seedy streets of DC.

I installed the headset the other night using my homemade headset press (HHP), aka "the warranty voider". Both cups went in like a dream, straight and smooth and...transposed. Zounds! Seems that in a single-beer induced fog, I'd installed the bottom cup in the top of the head tube and the top cup in the bottom. Nice.

When I mentioned this oversight to Butch, he suggested I leave it for style points, citing as a precedent the ofttimes flamboyent rickyd's deliberate such transposition some time ago. But anyone who knows me would see right through that ruse. Butch then turned me on to a homemade headset remover (HHR) constructed from a foot-and-a-half section of 3/8" diameter copper plumbing pipe, quartered on the business end with a hacksaw to form flaring tines, and capped on the other end where the pounding takes place.

A quick trip to the LHS (Local Hardware Store), a little handyman action, and I soon had a new tool on the cheap to add to the arsenal. Like the HHP, the HHR tackled the task with pugilistic aplomb, wresting each cup from its steely burrow with a few quick taps of a stout hammer. Double-checked that I had the cups properly placed, and back in they went. I drove the fork race home using a section of PVC tubing as a slide-hammer, and viola!—the job was done.

Without further adieu, I include a list of ingredients:

• Phil Wood front and rear high-flange track hubs, 32 hole (polished silver)


• Velocity Aerohead rims (silver)


• DT Swiss Competition Double Butted (14/15 guage) spokes (silver)


• Vittoria Randonneur tires, 700c x 28mm


• Surly track cog, 17T


• Sugino 75 cranks, 49T (silver)


• Crank Brothers Eggbeaters Quattro SL pedals (silver/black)


• Chris King headset (silver)


• Soma Fabrications "Major Taylor" track bar w/ (black) track grips


• Thomson Elite stem and seatpost (silver)


• Salsa Lip-Lock seatpost collar (black)


• Selle Italia (dick-friendly) SLK saddle


• Phil Wood bottom bracket (108.5)


• Tektro R538 Long Reach front brake caliper (silver)


• Paul Component Engineering E-Lever front brake lever (silver/black)


• KMC Kool chain

Since I built up the wheelset before deciding on a frame, I had to order a Phil conversion kit to stretch the 120mm (track) width rear hub to a 130, the Casseroll's spacing. Currently awaiting the arrival of this kit and the uber-pricey Phil bottom bracket. It'll be a few days before this baby gets a taste of the tarmac.Disembodied bling...

"Warranty Voiders" I and II...

1. La petite reine ("the little queen") is a French term of endearment for the magical, mystical transportation-device-cum-carnival-ride object most commonly referred to in English as "bicycle".