New Bike!: "Venom"

I finally pulled the trigger and bought myself a new bike! Well a frame. It's a 2009 Fuji D6 Matt Reed Edition. Since my wife got her 2009 D6 Pro, I have had bike envy, I admit it. The old Frankenbike has served me well, but it is time I just ponied up and got a decent bike. This one already received its name: "Venom"!

The Purchase

I missed out on one Ebay auction for one of these frames, as it just went higher than I wanted to pay for a bike frame. This one ended up going about the same but after consultation with the wife, she finally placed the winning bid for me and I won it! 

The bike came in packed in a standard bike shipping box from a Trek Madone. Nicely done by the seller! It even has the original manual and bag of small parts packed in there too. This includes an extra rear derailleur hanger and special cable housings and adjuster for the front brake.

Parts

More Ebay!  Well not all Ebay, but also Amazon.
Here's my current list for the build.

• Front Derailleur: SRAM Red in black.
• Rear Derailleur: SRAM Red in Team Liquigas color. This is a takeoff from a Cannondale team Liquigas bike. It is all back with a splotch of lime green. Not quite the color of the bike, but it is small and the color is close. Photos later.
• Cables: Jagwire cables in Organic Green. This color is pretty close, particularly to the darker section below the seatpost. I ordered the Racer cable kit but that is not nearly enough cable for this bike! I had to order additional rolls of the housing. The rear cable housings run full length inside the bike.
• Brake Adjusters: Shimano inline. The bike came with one adjuster for the front, but I want them to be the same. There is not room for adjusters at the brake on this bike since the brakes are tucked into and behind the frame, so it has to use inline adjusters.
• Brake Levers: I have Vision brake levers on the aerobars currently, but I have already run into an issue. These require special cables! I cut the cables when I took them off my old bike, so I think at least one of them will be too short. For future maintenance I am thinking I should go with ones that use the standard cables. I'll figure this one out later, I may have to stick some old ones I have on there for now.
• Aerobars: Existing Vision fixed aluminum bars. Maybe this will be upgraded to carbon in the future. Maybe sooner if the fixed length bars aren't the right length for me!
• Stem: Existing aluminum short stem. This one also has a high angle... we'll see if it works. Once I find the right length and angle this might go carbon as well.
• Crankset: SRAM Red carbon that was original on Donna's bike. This is 172.5mm where I may need a 175mm though. I will find out for sure when I take the bike for a professional fit after I get it together.
• Bottom Bracket: Another issue here. My new SRAM Red ceramic bearing bottom bracket got scuffed when the tool slipped taking it off my old bike. DOH! But the red color isn't right for this bike anyway. I am thinking I will strip off the anodizing and maybe paint it black. It is SO smooth! For now I had an old black GXP bottom bracket that originally came on Donna's Trek Equinox. Another option would be to upgrade this one with Enduro hybrid ceramic bearings. The holdup here is having to pay $120 for the tool to change the bearings, or come up with my own bearing press. A man can never have enough tools. :)