Well here in Kansas City, as you may know, we are preparing to host the Cyclocross nationals this weekend. And even though I knew this full well, I blatantly have almost finished building a bicycle this week and am dying to take my new Cirrus 7 touring rig for a test ride. The result of course is terrrible weather, with arctic tempratures, freezing rain then followed by about of foot of snow. Even better, the weather man is predicting barely thawing temps for the weekend with additional precipitation likely, just to ensure truly filthy course conditions. Sorry, guys. I hope the riders can find their studded cyclo tyres.
On the plus side, the bike is looking beautiful. I'm doing it Rivendell style, with MKS platforms, clips and straps and Dia Tech shifter pod/barcons. Knobby Campy Record levers look outstanding as Bar cons. (Every bike needs some Campy.) The only problem I encountered is that the shifter bosses on the pods were a hair too long, and the adjuster screws bottomed out (clunk!) before the friction elements grabbed the lever, leaving the lever flopping around. I was wasting lots of time trying to put a washer on the boss before the lever to reduce the bosses effective height, when Mike, my LBS guy, strolled up and observed my efforts. (All the swearing was distracting him, no doubt.) "Why don't you put a washer under the adjusting screw instead of on the boss?" DOH! Worked like a charm and can hardly be seen.
Everything else is generic parts bin/eBay scroungings. LX 175/110/74 cranks, 48x38x26 rings, 7 speed 13-28 freewheel, Suntour mountain front shifter, old Shimano Deore rear derailer, Universal centerpull rear brake (the frame was apparently made for 27 inch wheels, and the switch to 700's made the RX 100's I had too short), Shimano 600 front (as you may recall, the bike is sporting a home painted Schwinn Voyager fork, and it takes a recessed short reach brake. I now have a surplus pair of normal reach allen RX 100's. Sigh.), Gran Comp levers (these came with steel bar clamps, and we had to scrounge to get the alloy bar sized fittings), Trek seatpost, Profile high rise mountain stem and Sakae 25.4 maes bend bars.
There seems to be a buyer's market in these stems now. I paid $10 for mine. Much cheaper than the $40 for a Nitto Technomics, assuming you can get bars to fit. (I beleive Harris Cyclery has the beautiful Nitto classic bend road bars in 25.4 for not too much.) These mountain stems are a much cheaper way to get higher handlebars. But they are plug ugly and probably won't be around that much longer, as the aheadset-1 & 1/8 revolution continues to sweep all before it. No doubt that's why I got the stem so cheap.
My thanks to everyone on the list who supplied additional information on the origins of Cirrus 7s, the idenity of my replacement fork, and general smarts that have made me much more efficient in putting this project on the road. My thanks also to Mike at Bicycle Adventure for shop space and Jeremy at Midwest Cyclery, who had (of course!) a centerpull seat post bolt cable stop. (I've never stumped Midwest yet on obscure vintage bits.) I'll supply a riding report soon, assuming this isn't the start of another ice age.
Tom Adams, snowed in in Kansas City