The First Rideable Night of my F-1 Rockfish

I've wrenched on bikes quite a bit. The majority of the wrenching I've done has been for friends and strangers at the Charlottesville Community Bicycle Shop. It always felt great to get neglected bikes and parts working again with some ingenuity and elbow grease. And although it feels great to wrench for other people, there's just nothing like piecing together my own bikes. I've been conceptualizing and building my own bikes since my freshman year of college and one thing does not change: the first ride on a project bike is a blast. There comes that day in every project when I make a realization that I have everything in my possession to take it for a spin, even if it's not complete. That realization means the evening is ruined and all other plans are cancelled. I wrench until the wee hours of the night if I must, just to hop on for that first limited ride. I have to know how she handles.

I remember my first mountain bike ride on Observatory Hill on my first build in 2006, Penelope:

I remember blasting down the streets of Charlottesville at 4am with blinking yellow stoplights just as I finished the final welds on my tallbike:

And I remember taking a spin around the block as soon as my 3 speed road bike had a brake on it:

Those bikes were all juvenile builds of sorts, as my recent builds have matured and become somewhat coherent. More frequently I start from the frame up; sometimes building just the right wheelset or building the bike for a specific purpose. This week, I finally got my Formula-1 BMX Rockfish rideable:

Mechanically, the front brake and 3 speed hub are working, so it's all good to ride! I'm still working on the back brake (braze-on cantis?), searching for the right seven speed shifter for the cockpit, and looking to get the bike painted and decaled. As for the ride... this is the quickest accelerating, tightest turning, smoothest, and most fun bike I've built. I put some B.O.B. Nutz on it to haul my trailer and the build will make a nice beater/commuter/utility bike when done! It's super quick on those skinny 406 tires. It's definitely road worthy.

I wish you the very best on your maiden voyages. Mine have all been super.