Brave New Velo is a journal documenting the progress of building a new Soma Smoothie bicycle and the experience of such an endeavor for the first time. Thoughts, discoveries, trials and tribulations will be shared.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

It Wasn't Supposed To Be Like This

This bottom bracket is where I make the major compromise on the Soma Smoothie build. The pre-built bikes on the sales floor of the local dealership require a variety of compromises. They will have some good components, but not the ones I prefer. Hence this whole bike build thing. Faced with my extremely tight budget for this project I just might have to cut a corner somewhere. Ironically (or is it coincidentally?), those pre-builts are great for a tight budget. The Record crankset I bought came with a complementary Token brand bottom bracket which seems will do the job just fine, but I've had designs on a much higher quality option like a Phil Wood or Campy Record. Something that will turn like butter and turn, and turn, and turn for a long time. For the time being though this little brick will have to suffice. Now I'm no weight weenie but this is clearly a heavy sucker, weighing in at 213g (.47lbs). Initially, I don't think I'll be effected much by the extra weight, but I will eventually be relieved to have the inevitable upgrade. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be a piece of crap. On second thought it is probably worth the money to at least invest in a higher quality BB, not top of the line necessarily, but better than this. Could save me some grief.

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