frustration

I was super excited to hear that the frame was finished being powder coated yesterday.  I even had to borrow money from a buddy to make sure I could pick it up on the way home.  They definitely did a much better job this time.  I guess I didn’t mention it before, but they did it once and it didn’t turn out very good.  I asked them to redo it and they were willing.  It just took forever.

Frustration #1:
This was my fault.  I didn’t ask them to mask off the threads for the bottom bracket when they did the powder coating.  I guess I thought I would be able to turn it in there and it would just chew it up.  Well, the coating is really tough and my lame plan didn’t work.  I ended up having to use Aircraft Remover to get it all out of there.  I masked off the outer portion of the frame, but Aircraft Remover is such nasty stuff that it seeped its way through and ruined some small areas of the powder coating.  Most of it is on the bottom of the frame and around the rim of where the bottom bracket attaches.  It’s pretty small and I’m sure no one will ever notice, but I’m still not happy.  Lesson learned.

Frustration #2:
The tubes won’t fit within the tires.  It’s in a small area right where the valve stem is on both wheels, but I know it’s not right and I wasn’t able to correct it last night.  I thought airing it up with a compressor and working the tube would fix it, but that didn’t work.  I’m not sure if I can fix it.  I know I need to though.  Why is it in the exact same area on both wheels?

Frustration #3:
The stem adaptor I bought doesn’t fit down the head tube of the frame.  I thought all of these things were universal fit?  Does that mean I need to switch back to a quill stem?

Edit: Now that I look at it, it seems that I ordered a 1-1/8″ stem adaptor and I likely needed a 1″.  I’m taking this time to question my stem/handlebar choice to see if I should get something different.