For those who haven’t stopped by the shop recently, i should probably introduce myself. My name is Scott and I assemble all the bikes, do a bunch of the paint work and update the website here at True North. I also moonlight as a mechanic for the Ontario Cycling Association and the Canadian Cycling Association. As such i get the chance to work with a lot of up and comming riders in the sport. For the last several years I’ve had the pleasure of building up a couple of the rider’s team bikes. Last week Jamie Riggs gave me a call and asked if i could assemble his bike. Over the winter he signed for the local Jet Fuel Coffee team (former team of notable riders such as Andrew Randell, Dominique Rollin and Ryan Roth) and wanted to make sure his bike was dialed for the spring. It’s always fun checking out the new team rides, but the best part about building bikes is that at some point this year it will be cold and rainy and late in some parking lot in rural Quebec and I’m going to love the fact that i installed a barrel adjuster on Jamie’s front derailleur.

So here is your sneak peak at the 2009 Jet Fuel team bikes (Octto wheels are still on their way). Obviously we’re big fans of Steel and Titanium, but we can still appreciate a nice carbon bike. Plus, Octto makes our favorite bar tape.

We send a lot of bikes out the door with Ultegra Sl.

I thought about counting how many times it says Octto on this bike, but I’m far too busy and life is far too short.

What the most important part of this build that i hope i’ll never have to use? Removing the lawyer tabs on the fork makes for a much quicker wheel change should the need ever arise.