Up until Thursday evening, this build had gone far smoother than expected and I hadn't struggled with any component. Up until Thursday evening. That's when my occasional bonehead mechanic capabilities decided to kick in and I got a whole build's worth in one night.
Bonehead award candidate number one: After installing the front wheel it was time to adjust and finalize the front brake install. Nailed the adjustment, first time. The rotor would spin without any rubbing against the pads at all. Later that evening, heard a faint rub while test riding. Another test ride specifically to determine which wheel rubbed, and nothing. The rub was gone. It turns out I had taken one of the caliper bolts out to bring to Lowes to match when buying rear caliper bolts. The front wheel would rub off an on because I had one of the caliper bolts still in my pocket.
Bonehead award candidate number two: Installing the rear wheel of a Rohloff can be a bit tricky. The rotor has to slide between the pads, the axle plate has to slide into the brake adapter's notch, and the hub has to slide into the dropouts ... all at the same time. After a half dozen swear-filled attempts, I realized something was amiss. I'm quick like that. Let's just say that the Monkeybone brake adapter can be bolted on several ways, but only one way is correct. Did I mention I watched a video and made note of the adapter's position just 2 minutes before screwing it up? Monkeybonehead.
BTW, it takes about 4 seconds to mount a Rohloff wheel with the brake adapter facing the right way.
Bonehead award candidate number three: Bought and installed some bar tape, but it proved to be just too thick, as all I wanted to do is hide and secure the wires along a few inches of handlebar. Pulled the bar tape off, drove to sporting goods store and bought baseball bat tape ... much thinner ... should work better ... if I had bought the right color. I swear it looked black in the package. Well, it looks damned grey on the bike. Third times the charm ... right?
Bonehead award candidate number four: Bike is complete ... ready for the first real ride. Took off down the street doing 85mph! At least that's what my brand new O-Synce Macro High X rc computer said. It may have been a tad off so I stopped to ensure the right wheel size had been specified. It had. Went back in the house and Googled typical tire sizes and manually entered the tire circumference ... 2174 mm. I then pushed the bike out of the garage at 30+ mph. Ugh. Went for the first ride with the speedo and odometer totally screwed up. Ya know, those Garmin magnetless speed sensors tend to go haywire when placed next to magnets and electrical current ... like maybe a dynamo hub! Moved the sensor to the rear hub and my performance dropped to a mere mortal level.
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