Simply Cycle: The Hunqapiller has arrived! (Ta,da,ta,da)

   It seems like Christmas morning even if it is not. My new Rivendell Hunqapiller frame is in the competent hands of UPS whose website has assured me that it is "out for delivery." I worry like the mother of an only child, "what about a snowstorm? Accidents can happen!" Eventhough Jim Cramer reassured me last night on his show that UPS is one of the most reliable companies on the planet. I still didn't sleep well last night. This was not an impulse purchase, since my son got older and I have had more time to pursue my obsession with cycling I have wanted to get a new lugged steel bike. Aside from a custom bike with a much higher price and a very, very long waiting list, Rivendell was the most logical choice. So, after years of agonizing, deciding and drooling over their website I chose what many people believe to be the "butt ugliest, weirdest" frame they have made. The decision is documented in my first post on the subject

http://simplecycle-marc.blogspot.com/2010/12/elves-of-rivendell-are-delivering-for.html

   But it is obvious that fairyland didn't get it together. Not only were they having labor problems with the Dwarf tribe of Mt. Diablo:

http://simplecycle-marc.blogspot.com/2011/01/more-rivendell-and-leather-bar-covers.html

when they went to ship the frame, they discovered it had been painted with the wrong fork (the bike fork blades, they really don't paint with forks that would be that Pollack guy). So it got delayed again and here I sit, with a pile of unfinished paperwork in front of me anticipating a call from the hospital to inform me that my Hunq was in a terrible accident.
   But fortunately that has not happened and the frame was delivered on time. Now this is the moment of truth, will this be as ugly as people have suggested? Most people were upset that the top tube wasn't level and the larger sizes had an extra tube reinforcing the triangle at (gasp!) an angle. I only have the top tube to worry about because mine is the 54 cm version (thanks to my short legs). So many ghastly things were said about this frame that I was hoping not to be hit with fugly dust when I opened it.

I didn't get struck down by any obnoxious gas and the paint and decals were absolutely great.

The lugwork is the customarily beautiful Rivendell lugwork, I was a little apprehensive about the lug lining because I thought 3 colors would be overkill.

but now that I have it in my hot little hands, I like it and love the combination of grey and orange.
This is a hefty frame, I can feel it, the tubing is more substantial than the LHT I have had. I can now spend the rest of the afternoon building it up but I was looking around for a proper place to store it inside. Not the common, bike in the background of every NYC sitcom. I'm talking about, maybe a big shadowbox where I can dust it and hang it up between tours. Now don't tell me you never thought of that!
There's a spot here on the bedroom wall,