The Bike That Phill Built: Bits and Pieces

This next section outlines a whole bunch of items I bought at the same time that didn't require too much research, and I pretty much went off the sales assistants advice.
I bought a Salsa seat post. Its black, adjustable and supports a saddle. Yay!

Combined with a saddle, this makes a bike much more comfortable to ride!

I also picked up some brake levers (Tektro). Once again brake levers for use on touring bikes need to to clamp the brakes when squeezed. A marvel of modern engineering was not necessary. In hindsight it would have been nice to buy levers that also had the horizontal lever option.

Cheap and painless, unlike the rest of the bike

To nearly complete my handlebar set I purchased handlebar tape. I wanted the colour black, so bought black. Like the seat post is produced by Salsa and it is made from stuff called Gel Cork and has little pictures of chilis on it.

It was surprisngly difficult to get black tape, the store kept on selling out

I also purchased inner tubes. The most important factor here was that they matched my wheel size, which, as Little Claire (one of the lovely sales assisstants at Mal Adjusted) pointed out, isn't crucial. Two Tioga Tubes later I was nearly finished shopping.

I have many a tube, I hope these last longer than my last set.

The next order of business was to finish off my wheels so I purchased s0me brand spanking new tyres. I bought the Schalbe Marathon Plus. A bit heavy a approximately 900g, but they are heavy duty, with an extra layer of rubber to ensure that flat tyres are a thing of the past.

I may end up buying a couple of different sets of tyres depending on the type of riding I intend on doing.

Finally I bought a chain. The most though an effort went into choosing this particular item than all the others. I went with a SRAM pc-951 chain (for 9 speeds).

Much cheaper than expected, apparently these are the best value chains

It was a gold link which is has a simple mechanism for uniting the two ends of the chain. Importantly it does not have hollow pins, which are used to lower the weight of the chain, but if you ride off-road there is a tendency for the hollow pins to fill with dirt and grime. Its also about $60 cheaper to buy the non hollow pin version.

You can see the gold links, I was told this is unique to SRAM, or at least the joining mechanism is.

That was a lot of stuff all at once, but now I'm nearly done.
Salsa Seat Post = $54
Tektro Brake levers = $45.00
Salsa Handlebar Tape = $22.50
Tioga Tubes = $6.30 x 2 = $12.60
Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tyres = $71.95 each (I only paid for one but got two. Woohoo!)
SRAM PC-951 chain = $31.50

If you squint and use you imagination this nearly looks like a complete bike

Total
Frame Set $1099+
Wheel Set $ 495
Handlebars $135
Headset $ 77.50
Cassette $ 89.90
Crankset $198.02
Rear Derailleur $108
Brakes $86.38
Front Derailleur $54
Seat Post $54
Brake Levers $45
Handlebar Tape $22.60
Tubes $12.60
Tyres $71.95
Chain $31.50

$2580.45