Building Themis: The End

Oh, the vanity!

It is probably easy to understand the reasoning of Julius Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon: power. Yet every stew brewed on power is heavily seasoned with vanity. And we know Caesar was vain; he constantly worried about his receding hairline.

I, too, suffer from premature hairloss. And while personal crossing of the Rubicon is less dramatic, it is equally motivated by vanity. In terms of consequences, my river crossing will probably not affect anyone, to be honest. Some may even say it's altogether a gross exaggeration to draw parallels between such an historical important acts as the crossing of the Rubicon and one person's pastime bike building projects 2,000 years later.

Any bike experience is made more comfortable with a basket.

While Ceasar's action formed the future of an empire, my action has only impacted my personal wallet. Since last update, rationality was thrown over board and in order to finalize Project Themis. A point of no return — Rubicon — was reached, and the became too big to fail – on the scale of a bored individual's life.

Wrapping the handlebar tape was as complicated as expected. The finish is poor, and frankly quite embarrassing. Yet it’ll do for now.

What I'm trying to say is that budgetary constraints were cast aside. While costs escalated, it wasn't possible to stop what had become an avalanche of pedals, cables, brake fluid and sundry bike parts. Like a dictator lavishing riches originally destined for common good, I was prepared to funnel money from household necessities to this project celebrating selv-affection, leaving people without milk (or the 2020 climate-friendly equivalent: soymilk) and bread.

Covid-19 is still impacting the project. The mudguards that was intended for the bike are stuck somewhere, and the delivery date is unknown. These will do until then.

Now that the project is finalized, Themis will have to be treated like Rapunzel, trapped in a tower to withhold her beauty from thieving hands. Since there is no money left, however, my version of Rapunzel won't even have a view, being confined to the basement where her inertial completion has taken place since December. I will have to think like a religious fanatic, overzealously "protecting" his daughter from outside influence. In this spirit, Themis will be equipped with a chastity belt in the shape of a heavy duty chainlock, the last of a long list of components needed to complete the bike.

Suffice to say, things got a bit out of hand in the build process. But you can't just throw any parts together when the starting point is such a beautiful titanium frame. Hence the custom-built wheels, a comfortable saddle and the recently released Shimano GRX group, just to mention a few details. The brakes had to be modified to fit Deore calipers, and that seems to work fine. I could have — and probably, for the benefit of the few actually interested in bikes rather than my ramblings, should have — delivered a more detailed list of specifications. But that's not important. The process was important. And I don't know who roams in these corners of the worldwide web. I don't want to encourage those with dishonest intentions. To those I do say: remember the chastity belt; it's always attached.

The bike is ready to roam. Its existence is based on vanity. It is titanium. End of story.