Double-A finally received her new Luna "Eclipse" road frame last weekend. Took me a few sessions of wrenching to get it built up, and the first test ride was tonight in the parking lot...

Double-A had been admiring all the flame jobs on the roads around Los Angeles recently. She figured she'd hafta satiate her interest in flame jobs either on the Passat, a tattoo, or her new Luna. She chose the bike...

Here's a quick glance at the drivetrain. We do a lot of climbing, with the more challenging days ranging between 5,000 and 10,000+ feet. So we went with a 48/34 up front and the typical 12-27 in the rear.

That's an IRD Impala polished crank. It came with 50/34 rings, and we bought a nice 48 tooth TA Zepher big ring from Peter White. I've been running a 48t on my touring bike and it's nice to stay in the big ring even at a stop sign. Above 40 mph we won't bother pedaling, so spinning out isn't a concern.

That's an IRD compact front derailleur. If you saw my post last night you may have read about an adjustment issue. That problem went away when I took out the 113mm BB and replaced it with a 109.5 BB. So it seems to work fine and dandy now.

The Kalloy Uno $19 seatpost is a godsend for Brooks saddle users. It has ample setback, a good polished finish and excellent micro-adjust on the angle. We have 4 now and I'm gonna order a fifth.

The Shimano long (standard) reach calipers have lots of room for a plump tire, perhaps 32mm or maybe more if we're lucky.

The frame is slightly "compact", meaning there's a small slope to the top tube, a taller head tube, and the extension to accomodate a tall stem. For now we have the bar tops just above saddle height, but Double-A will likely lower them to get more racy. Anyway, her upper body position is a huge improvement over the old Basso racing frame she was on.

A couple views of the front end, cabling, and nice clearance under the brake calipers.

That's our phantom cat, Sasha, blurring through the photo.

We spec'd the chainstays a little longer than a pure roadie, and got four point rack mounts to accomodate light touring. The frame has nice clean welds, and the snowy white is even better looking in person.

Margo Conover is apparently the only female frame builder in the US. The frame has simple southwest accents because her shop was in Santa Fe, NM, until a couple weeks ago when she moved to Nederland, CO. We're hoping to visit and tour her shop when we're in Denver for the holidays.

I tried to match the cable housings to the paint - grey in front and white(r) in back.

One small glitch - the water bottle boss, a star shape, is slightly pinched by the FD clamp. Time will tell if the clamp holds tight. I think it will.

Keep your eyes peeled for Double-A flaming down a SoCal road near you!

An old question, fenders ? What about a pair of those made from cedar and walnut, http://forums.roadbikereview.com/showthread.php?t=62346 ?

Doesn't matter though, where there is smoke there is fire.

That is hot! (Although to qualify for full on bike porn I'm thinking you got to get in a little closer on some of the shots).

MB1
Needs More Porn!

Lovely bike! And thanks for the info on the Kalloy post. I'll have to pick one up myself.

Very nice! My wife has been craving a Luna for some time now. How was Margo to work with?? Could you provide an overview of the build process you went through?

Thanks.

Well let's see... Double-A talked to Margo about what she had been riding (a Basso 49cm road race frame), and about its limitations (poor fit / long reach / shoulder and neck pain, and toe overlap). then they discussed what she wanted (all around day riding bike for centuries and such). We confirmed that, if possible, we wanted to reuse the 700c wheelset (instead of moving to smaller wheels) and Margo felt it was OK. I barged in and asked about some touring-friendly compromises such as longer chainstays, 4-point rear rack bosses, fork bosses, and long reach caliper brakes. Margo was OK with those ideas, although I had the impression that more of a pure racing style is what she does most.

We followed Margo's fit form, and took all measurements at home with a tape. We never interfaced with our LBS, which was fine. When you choose a frame builder, you have to trust their process whether or not they use an LBS as a middle man for sales, fit, or whatever. Margo emailed us a nice bike-CAD drawing (screenshot) showing the frame, angles, dimensions and such. We're not experts with geometry, and I don't recall asking for any changes. Margo was able to predict, based on frame, crank, and shoe size, that Double-A would probably not have any toe overlap - although it might be close (I forgot to ask how the first ride went yesterday).

It took about 6 weeks to go through those steps and have the frame built. Then a couple more weeks for paint, which was done by a third-party partner. Because of the flame job, I encouraged Double-A to detail what she wanted, within reason, so the painter would have guidelines to work within. In the end it turned out fine, but there was definitely opportunity for deviations and it was important for us to talk to the painter directly before he applied the flames over the base white paint.

We had Margo install a King headset since that was the one item I was not prepared to do on my own. The frame arrived via FedEx ground. It looked great, felt light and had a nice tuning fork ring to it. The vent holes on the tubing are a little large compared to other frames. We live in an arid climate and aren't concerned about any water dripping in, but it does make me wonder. Might not have been noticable except with the pristine white powder coat...

Very nice looking bike. That paint job is fantastic!

Thanks for the description of the build process.