This is what I use to do mith my DA stem. Then I over-torqued it and fucked it up lol
Looking good but!
INDENTon a stinking hot day, what better than driving around with the a/c cranked for a total of 3 hrs, going up and down Bell st to view houses, buy groceries, acquiring beers, swapping some of said beers for bike parts, having lunch then finally buying garden supplies??
combining most things while putting bike together ready for Tuesday Track!
after a couple of icy poles and a beer, it was into the oven/garage for final ghetto assembly…while i was sweating inside the shed, Kate was just outside doing some garden makeover. she dragged me into digging the holes for her, invoking the ‘i’m too hot to work’ clause.
pics of garden, as it was finished first…and one of the little furball that makes no noise when she meows.
and now for Stage 1 setup, Ghetto Race. i hope i’ve got all the important things covered when taking pics of your bike: drive side, valves at 6 o’çlock, cranks NOT at 12/6 or 3/9, level saddle, artsy/industrial backdrop…did i miss any?
and now that it’s ready to race i can focus on doing more digging into its origins.
Black stem, silver sear post, the horror…
black grips, silver cranks, black chainring, silver headset…just needs black pedals 
I’m not saying you don’t know what your talking about … but I was there and during the era of Dfunkt’s frame a black stem was ultra bling and very common. Black stem, silver post and bars is cooler than you know.
Any track bikes with black stems?
So more common than I thought.
Agreed with spirito although I WASN’T around in that era. I bring my own evidence to this (not my bicycle)
looks ghetto as fuck. i love it.
that isn’t the same front wheel, is it? does it still have the same issues?
Back in the day … lots. Black stems aren’t around as much now because they scratched up easier and weren’t as easy to keep looking presentable as silver stems were. Also a lot of black stems have had their anodizing stripper and are now polished silver.
They really were hipster de rigeur in the mid to late 80’s and even early 90’s. .
not the same as the one i ran for that Saturday outdoor session…but it is the same set I’ve been using on Watermelon the last two months.
See this tuesday? Looking shit hot
Chain tension?
I always liked the d/s crank arm to be parallel with and forward of the chainstay, so it fills the gap between the front wheel and the downtube. I also like to position the camera perpendicular to the bars so the drop at the back is hidden by the drop at the front - sometimes the bars look all wonky in perspective…but they’re just my own rules.
What happened to the D-A stem? Or could you not reconcile the fact that there are only one set of bars on the planet that actually fit, and they’re road drops?
Yes indeed! I loved digging up the history of my McBain, all the people I talked to were all too keen to help and we would often chat for quite some time about bikes. I also learnt that some people are incapable of replying to e-mails, so if it is John at Europa you need to speak to, give him a call.
I’ve always had a soft spot for Europas and I’m stoked this will be going to the track. Well done!
This, but whenever I try to get this, I can never get a nice side on view of the bike. It’s always facing an angle from the front.
Then again, I am a shit photographer (only camera is part of my phone…)
Looks shit. You should sell it to me 
Needs a graffiti background and a spokecard.
will def be there on Tuesday but dunno how much racing i’ll be doing. tweaked my hamstring on Friday at work, took it for a bit of a loosen this morning but no go 
- loose chain is a fast chain
- new pics after a short roll for coffee and to the local oval for above mentioned hamstring loosen fail. fixed a few of your qualms…cranks still not quite parallel, but closer than before.
- i’ve been running road drops on Watermelon and will be on this as well. but yes, will probably stick the stem on the kypo roadie, to go with the rest of the shimano bits.
- i’ve heard John isn’t doing the best health-wise, so not sure how good he’ll be to talk to over the phone. ideally i’d love to go visit the shop with the frame, maybe i’ll have to tee up a three day weekend jaunt to Syd and drop by.
my fave bit of graffiti is no more (see below). was full background of hills and tree, then here at the halfway point until two yrs or so was painted over completely. until i can find something as awesome as this once was, i’m sticking to industrial/natural backdrops.
as for spokecards, they’re all at work (the whopping three of them), adorning the walls, reminding me of a life outside…
so as alluded to up there, i put on some other wheels with larger tires and went for a short ride this morning for coffee and to see what condition my hamstring was in…top speed was about 15km/h, as it was my first ride on public roads brakeless (running 49/14 i was too scared i’d never be able to pull up if anything was in my way). stuck to the back roads to get to the oval just up the road.
more pics of yet another guise. a 23 front and rear help fill some gaps. (and if you look closely you’ll see some remnants of the coffee i was drinking on my way to the oval.)
colours not my cup of tea but still love it for some reason! Nice work.
is that saddle level?
i haven’t put the spirit level on it, but tip and tail are close, maybe slight back tilt…will check tonite just for you. actually, you can do that yourself at disc.
looks like maybe a slight sloping tt?