So, having had a good rummage through the spares in our garage, it was time to start building, pausing only briefly to admire the lovely shiny black finish on the frame and forks.

Job 1 was to fit a suitable square taper bottom bracket for the 170mm, ex-recumbent, single speed cranks complete with 42T chainwheel. Then the tricky bit: the headset!

An assortment of threaded rod, nuts and washers was assembled to pull the bearings (BBB, that had been waiting for a sunny day in the spares box) into the head tube. Grease, care, and not a insignificant amount of swearing later, the bearings were seated cleanly. Definitely a job where the correct tools make life much easier! Fitting the crown race to the forks was easier: aluminium tube and medium sized hammer.

But I could now assemble the forks into the frame using a spare stem and a stack of washers, and then fit one of Tony's old Shimano disc calipers, aligned using the front wheel complete with lovely new Vittorio Rubino Pro Slick tyre. At t'other end, a used but clean 11-30 cassette was mounted onto the freehub, and I now had a rolling chassis. I was now determined to have a ride on it 'soon-as', so a used seat post (ex-wife's MTB) and old Ritchey Vector Rail saddle (ex my MTB) were fitted, along with a spare (ex-recumbent) set of handlebars.

On went the cranks and a spare set of flat pedals and, yes, it looked awful, but good enough to freewheel down the front garden on!

Once the excitement died down, I got the tape measure out again and decided to shell out on some new narrow(ish) straight bars, a longer stem and an 8-speed Shimano thumb shifter. This meant I could re-use an existing Shimano rear mech even though, as a roadie friend of mine pointed out in amazement, it was a long cage item (I hadn't noticed, and cared even less – it worked!). Ideally I would have used SRAM's 1:1 ratio components, but for now Shimano would have to do.

The old rear mech, with new derailleur compatible chain tugs and a barely used Wipperman chain were fitted, and a gear change cable made up.

Note that, on the advice of my local general maintenance (including bikes) shop, I used brake cable inner and outer for the gear change – works well enough for me and is a damn site easier to install, even with help!