To quote Montey Python: GET ON WITH IT!

We demand opdates and photos

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And if I ever meet an aardvark, I'm going to step on its damn protruding nasal implement until it couldn't suck up an insect if its life depended on it.

Sorry, yes I know it has been a while. My excuse is that I have been moving house so its been a bit hectic. I have also been spending too much time reading about Berks new prototype .

So what have i been up to when i'm not driving across the country with a car full. Well, the bike has had its first ride, I built it up on saturday night working late into the night then took it for its first test ride on Sunday.

Its not all roses though. I still have parts missing, the seatpost clamp for example is both rubbish and heavy, and the stem has been taken from my bike. Also I put Sram Red shifters on, The plan was to put these on my bike and then put my force ones on the trek but it was late and I coundnt face having to set up 2 sets of gears and brakes and re wrap my bar tape. We will see if i get round to changing them. Also the wheels are yet to be built so it was running my R50 Planet X wheels rather than the lightweight 20mm i hope to use. And I didnt have any bar tape so I ended up using leftovers from taping up my tt bike this meant one side is white and one is black not so cool.

There have also are a few other issues, The saddle cradle (the U piece i made) cracked when I installed it and leant on it rather hard, no biggy, I just made a new one out of an FSA bottom bracket spacer thing (you know that pointless piece of tube that goes between the bottom bracket bearings under the pretty sleeve thats there seemingly just to add weight).
Also some of the cable stops hadnt glued on very well, which meant one of the brake cable stops popped off when i set it all up and gave the brakes a good squeeze and the front deraillure one flew off when I took it for a test ride. Took me ages to find it but luckily I did and they are now glued on properly. I may rivet the brake cable stops on at a later date so safety.

Also there are some changes to be done to the fork and wheel decals, currently the fork decals are gold and red and hopefully I can get them re-done. Likewise the wheel decals are red so a change is in order.

The bottle cage seemed to work flawlessly (which surprised me) It held the bottle a little wonky but I think that was just my installation.

So how did it ride. Well I'm 6'3 with monkey limbs so a 54cm frame felt a little squashed and I only did 5miles on it but here are my initial impressions. With such a short wheelbase the steering was really responsive. Compared with my planet x pro carbon, it felt much stiffer at the rear, the front feeling about the same. Climbing out the saddle (currently in cambridgeshire so hills are lacking) felt surprisingly good for my weight being so far over the front. But the most important thing, It fits my girlfriend perfectly and she thinks its great (although she also doesn't like the gold on the fork)

The weight without pedals and saddle was 6.2kg so I should be able to get it below 6.8kg even with the boat anchor saddle.

So whats left to do in no particular order.

1. Build wheels
2. New Bartape
3. New SP clamp
4. Change Saddle
5. New fork decals
6. Wheel decals
7. Buy new stem, Syntace f99 maybe
8. change shifters over
9. Make carbon front mech hanger
10. make more bottle cages (for my bike and second one for trek)

And If anyone has any black I links brake links lying around PM me, I could really do with about 5 links as they are currently running short.

Changed to standard topic.

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'Tape was made to wrap your GF's gifts, NOT hold a freakin tire on.'

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Any updates or new pics?

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Trek 5500
Kestrel 200SC
BP Stealth AL-7005

Pretty cool. I too am doing the same thing to my Trek 5200. Good work so far. I can't wait to see the finished product.

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Cervelo S2(5888g)
Trek 5200(7050g)

I just picked up a 5500 yesterday off of Craigslist and want to do a project with it too I am interested on how you took the paint off.

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Trek 5500
Kestrel 200SC
BP Stealth AL-7005

Bump.

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Exp001

Yeah, where are the finished pics? I like the home made seat post! I've been riding my stripped 5500 a lot lately and love it.

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Trek 5500 - 13.75lbs on a $1400 Budget
20 gram 1x10 chain guide

well what is new, i cant wait ) i really want to see how it turneed out as i found a trek 5500 on ebay for 70 quid

Any pics?

Got the popcorn in the oven