Hey everybody...
I posted pictures of the frame only about 3 weeks ago after I finished the frame painting. I finally finished up the build (got most of the remaining parts for christmas). Hope you all like it. I took it for it's first (extremely cold Upstate New York) ride last night after I finished the last little bits. It was dark, and just around the block, but I knew it was going to snow today, so I wanted to get at least one ride in before it could be off the road for who knows how long with all the snow. Its quiet, smooth and very comfortable. The brakes leave something to be desired, but they are cheep nasbar ones. Tough to find long reach calipers that have the same feel as the more mainstream/brand name road stuff. Otherwise it's just as I described in the last post. The gearing is 44X16 freewheel and 44X14 fixed. I Chose the higher gearing on the fixed side to help me keep slower cadences while I get used to the while fixed thing (a little awkward at first, especially trying to get that second foot in the toe straps). As I get more comfortable I'll gear it down a bit to bring the cadence up.

Hope you all like it!

nice paint job. looks great.

It looks fanstatic...Very nice job

Try Kool Stop pads. They make even a mediocre dual pivot brake work much better.

P.S. Great looking bike. SKS fenders are way cool! Good job.

Cool bike! Nice paint work.

Greatness! Contrasting, outlined lugs = always perfect. Maybe some white or gold bar tape to pick up the lugs linings? Just a thought.

I have those Nashbar calipers and they work suprisingly well for me.

Thanks for the positive feedback everyone! Richard I'll definitely give the Kool stops a shot if I find that I can't live with it how it is now. The shoes that came with the calipers were decidedly a "budget" job. Stopping is a good thing so I think it will be worth the investment.

As for the bar tape I went back and fourth on that one quiet a bit. My LBS had a white cork tape that had almost little gold flecks in it (might have been the un-dyed cork showing through) but I chose the blue to hide the dirt a little better, and I like the feel of that synthetic specialized stuff a bit better than the traditional cork tape. Oh well though thats easy to change.

I'm pretty happy with the build save for the chain. My LBS only had a black 1/8" chain (i'm running a shimano track fixed cog so I had to go with the fatter chain). I think a nickel plated one would look a bit better. I could have waited and had them order one or picked up one on the internet for cheap, but I was a little too excited to get it out and ride it :) so I just bought what they had in stock. It was only a $15 chain though so that again would be an easy change over if I find it still really bothers me in a month or two.

The paint is still pretty fragile even after a month of cure time. The rattle can stuff really just doesn't hold up as well as the professional grade urethanes. I don't see it as a set back though. I see it as speeding up the opportunity for me to paint it something new!