One and done

I have finished the build on my Ochsner. Actually I am still waiting for 8 speed DT shifters, but that is not going to change the look. I know it is probably tiresome to see so many pictures of the same bike, but this it. I wanted to challenge myself with something that I had never done before, and do it with something that I get so much pleasure out of . Hence the re-build. I did it all with the exception of the headset and bottom bracket and the paint job. It is not perfect by any means, but from my point of view, pretty darn nice. I made quite a few mistakes and learned a lot. I had a lot of times of frustration and some " Holy cow, it works, I did it.", moments. I put the last touch on it today, the decals. I had a hard time getting the decals to separate from the paper backing and plastic strips. I did not put them on exactly as how they were, or as many as they were originally. I also had to raise the stem/handlebars a good bit. I found out on my first real ride on the bike that my back/neck were not going to tolerate setting them up that low.

I am still a mechanically challenged individual, but I gained a good bit of confidence from doing this project. I spent more dollars than I wanted, or planned, to spend. That is definitely OK. As I was progressing there were things that I realized just were not going to work if I wanted my bike to come out as well as I hoped for. I have some items that I wound up not using

I am very grateful for the help that I received from BikeForums members, including the ones I bought components/parts from. I also thank the LBS mechanic, Mike, that did the head set and bottom bracket, and also gave me suggestions and advice. Fred did an awesome job on the powder coating.

I will definitely not be pursuing other frames/bikes to re-build. However, I will be doing most of the maintenance/mechanical work on my bikes now, something I never did in the 48 years I have been a road cyclist.

My Ochsner will not win any prizes, and maybe not much praise. Any criticisms are OK, they do not change how I feel about what I have done. I did it for me and I am very pleased with the outcome.

Thanks much, delbiker1
Before I started


Before final touches




The final result