Devinci-Norco Half-breed.

It all started with me being very stupid. 

Who would buy a used bike with a broken frame? 

I would. 

Well I didn't initially think it was broken. There was a dent in the frame, yes. But oh such minor details. I was too hung up on the fact that it was a really nice bike that was being sold for a very good price. Plus it has all the amenities I would want so it was basically "ready-to-go". It rode very smoothly, and it was so freakishly light in weight. I can live with the mild imperfection in the dented frame. No worries.

That's the downside when you shop on craigslist. There is no return policy. And if you're a bone-head like me who did not do a good-enough inspection when you buy something, then you would've paid a bunch of money for essentially scrap. That's exactly what happened when I went back and rechecked the "dent" the next day under more light. 

The crack was so obvious only a bozo could have missed it. 

Meet me, the bozo. 

I debated whether it was still safe to ride. I did my search on google. It appeared that the unanomyouus conclusion is that a cracked aluminum frame implies that it will one day break suddenly while you're flying downhill and that you'll fall face-first into traffic and die. There was no way I would be safe riding that now. My beautiful bike instantly became scrap metal. What a bargain. 

But one bad break led to another wonderful opportunity. I decided that I would rebuild the bike with a new frame. I loved the other components, actually. The original bike would have sold for $900 if brand new. I definitely wanted to reuse the aluminum fork, the ultra light wheels, the sleek handle-bar, and all that other jazz. 

After much hunting, shopping, and sometimes pleading with bike shop owners, I found myself a Norco Yorkville medium hybrid frame in champagne trim. The Yorkville isn't a particularly expensive bike, so the frame was slightly heavier then the old Devinci Oslo that I got. But it "would fit", I was told. And it was on clearance, so how could I refuse? So I brought it, hoping that I would not become bozo number 2. 

Eagerly, I took it home and started to work on it. I had no idea how to take apart a bike to build a new one, but I was hard-pressed not to spend an extra penny to pay someone to do it. I trusted google and youtube. It would be a fun project, I thought. 

Plus my Dad was eager to help. He really liked the Devinci and didn't want it to go to waste. He's always forever helpful and patient, so I decided that I would work with him on the bike on my day off on Canada day. 

It turned out to be a wonderful project. In the end, I had to invest in a few more specialized tools that enabled me to remove the crankset and the bottom bracket. I was lucky that the front fork fit well with the new bearings that I brought earlier, and once those two key parts were in, the rest were easy. Doing it ourselves, we were able to understand the mechanics of a bike. The cables and the gear setup made a lot of sense now, and putting a bike together wasn't all that difficult after all. If we try again now, we would be able to repeat it in under an hour. 

In the end, we made a beautiful bike. It was truly rewarding to look at something that you've built from scratch. Hours before they were various scarp metal parts, and now a beautiful champagne hybrid road bike with black trims. The final product rode amazingly smoothly, and everything felt so right. 

And the best part was that I was able to work on this with my Dad. Two people who had no idea how to put together a bike, using unfamiliar tools and without any instructions, succeeded in putting together a wonderful bike.